Crushes and Runaways
by Benzol85
Summary: Chris helps Karen out when Jess has her baby, but soon has problems of his own - which he intends to keep secret. Will anyone find out? And what'll happen if anyone does?
1. Chapter 1

_A/N – Hey there! There was so much inconsistency with the fanfic relating to Chris having a long-lost daughter he knew nothing about, and so there are extra bits that I thought up to go into it, which I would've loved to go into its predecessor. Ah well not everyone gets things their own way.  
>More to come!<em>

_Thanks_

xXx

She never thought she'd find the right road in the teeming rain.  
>It came down even heavier than back when she'd picked up her journey from the train station, and it glistened along the pavements and road as it fell.<br>The only thing she was glad about was the fact that she had a _hood _on her very thin jacket.

She presently came to the block of flats she was meant to go to, yet refrained from proceeding any further. She couldn't bring herself to.  
>What if no one wanted her? What if no one wanted to see her again? They were all questions floating about in her mind and they were ones that she just couldn't shift.<p>

Unable to come up with an answer, she settled on taking refuge in a nearby bus shelter around the corner from the road, thankful that the rain hadn't leaked through the plastic roof on it.  
>Pulling the sides of her jacket closer against her, she huddled up in the driest corner she could find, and fell into a fitful sleep.<p>

The next morning.  
>Karen was surprised at how bright it was.<br>She wasn't able to sleep that well the previous night, and so she hoped that the bright weather would've continued by the time work was over.  
>She looked over at the time, worried that none of the kids had come down. "Come on, are any of you up yet?"<p>

Harry dashed down the stairs, all ready to go.

"Where's your sister?" Her mother's question was answered pretty much straightaway when Jess came slower down the stairs soon after her brother.

"Doing your hair, weren't you?" He teased.

"Well…" She got herself ready to go. "Now that's all sorted, I guess we can head off."

Karen had only just walked into her room when a knock came at her door.  
>Chris came in, his bright blue eyes shyly meeting her darker ones.<br>"Morning." He noted chirpily, seemingly having no recollection of the fact that it was actually a _Monday_, although he was like that _any _day of the week.

She wished she could have whatever _he_ was on. "Someone had a good weekend."

"Me?" He came closer to her desk. "Well, it was ok, I guess. Couldn't complain although I didn't do anything _special_."

"It wasn't really nice all weekend, was it?" She couldn't take her eyes off his slender body, admiring a slight dewy finish to his exposed skin at his neck. Such a subtle sight was doing all sorts to her inside.

"No, especially last night." He creased his forehead in mild dislike. "Did you _hear_ that rain? I thought it wouldn't _stop_."

Karen nodded. "I didn't sleep all that well because of it."

"Oh dear." Chris stated. "Light sleeper, are you?"

"Not really," she suppressed a yawn, "I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping recently."

He knew he wasn't really there for a social chat. Although they were close enough to engage in such talk, he had to explain his _real_ reason why he was there. "I hope you don't mind, but I completed my appraisal paperwork for you."

She smirked to herself. She couldn't get over his diligence. The paperwork in question wasn't even due for a few more days. "Don't tell me you spent all of your time this morning working on that?"  
>She knew he came in early some days, but for him to work on something like that was a bit too attentive for her liking.<p>

There came a knock at her door, interrupting their banter, and Harry slowly came in.

"Everything ok, love?"

He nodded dimly.

"You want me to go?" Chris wanted to know, not really minding if they both didn't want him there.

"If…that's ok," Karen started, looking to Harry, "unless you've got some objection to it."

"I think I wanna go home, mum." He stated loosely.

Chris frowned at how poorly he sounded. "You not feeling very well, Harry?" If that were the case, he couldn't understand why Karen didn't send him home.

She came over to her son. "He hasn't been well for a while, Chris. I thought him coming back in might help him feel better."

"What sort of 'poorly' are we talking here?" He folded his arms across his chest. "By the look of him, I don't think he should be in."

"He's been sick and he's lost his appetite a fair bit." She explained, looking to him worriedly.

"If you wanna take him to the doctors, don't let me stop you." He offered. "Or if you want, I can always take him up there if you're too tied up here."

"I've already taken him." Karen went on. "They told me to keep him at home."

"Then that's really where he should stay, Karen." He replied slowly. "He looks fit to keel over any second."

"I can't." She weakly stated. "I just…I can't have him going home anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because he's so near his exams." She helped him to sit down on the sofa. "Any more time off sick and he'll _miss_ them. I can't risk that." She heard her mobile going off, and she quickly answered it.

Harry dimly lay down on the sofa from his sitting position and clutched his stomach.

Chris was worried at how poorly he'd become and kept a close eye on him.

"I'm sorry, Jess, what…?" The tension was mounting in her voice, and it was something she couldn't hold back. She drew in a small sigh and disconnected the call.

"…Everything ok?" The young male perched himself against the windowsill, raising an eyebrow in concern.

"Jess is having labour pains…or so she thinks." She quirked a smile. "So she's just asked me to take her to the hospital."

"You're a bit tied up, and if you're not careful, you're going to get yourself seriously burned out." He explained. "Take her to the hospital and I'll deal with things here. I don't have any sets at all, so I don't mind staying here. As for Harry, he can stay here till he feels better or I can always take him home myself by the time you get back."

"But the exams…"

"We can _stall _the exams, it's not a problem." He went on. "I'd rather him be well for them than for him to miss them altogether. He will not miss taking them, don't worry."

Karen smiled thankfully. "Thank you."

Chris perched behind her desk when she'd gone, his gaze darting over to Harry every so often. He was worried that he hadn't have _moved_; just simply lay on his side, clutching his stomach.  
>What worried him all the more was the fact that he could be violently sick just like that.<br>"I think I should take you home, Harry." He emerged from behind the desk, bending down beside the sofa so he could look at him better. "You're not well enough to be here."

"I don't wanna go," he dimly insisted, "please…let me stay for a bit longer."

"I don't think your mum's going to be too happy about me keeping you here just because you wanna stay." He smirked teasingly. "Come on, let's get you home before you end up _really _poorly."

Harry resignedly followed him to his car and he sat in the front passenger side. He felt even _sicker _when he was taken back home.

Chris looked over at him as he made to get out. He frowned at the sight of him.  
>It was almost as though he'd gotten sick from the sheer motion of the drive.<p>

"Can you come in with me?" He looked to him dimly.

"If…you _want_ me to." He twisted the key out of the ignition, locked the car and went with him into the house. He didn't know why he wanted him there with him – and it was at the _worst_ possible time.  
>He had a <em>school<em> to go back to and look after, and he knew he was going to be the one in trouble if Karen were to come back and see that all the kids had run amok.  
>"Harry, I don't know why you want me here."<p>

"I don't like being on my own."

He frowned at his response and came closer to him. "Has something happened?" He wanted to know.

He shook his head.

"If you can't say, then I won't be able to help you and I'll go." He added. "I mean you should feel able to tell me now, it's just you and I here."

Harry bleakly looked away.

"Just get some sleep and try to get yourself better before your exams, if you can." He got his car keys out, ready to go. "I'll let your mum know when she gets back that I've taken you back home." And with that, he saw himself out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chris started the drive back to the school. He had to pass the road just before his own yet when he did so, something caught his attention.

A small, huddled up mass was curled up in the nearby bus stop. Whoever it was had their hood right up, completely covering their head and face.

He frowned. He knew he shouldn't really stop for them as he had to get back to work, but if they were still there by the time he'd finished…there was probably little harm in asking them if they were ok or if they had somewhere to go.

He got back to the school, relieved that everything remained pretty much the same as it did as he left it.  
>He went back to what he was doing and within a few minutes, Karen came through the door.<br>He peered up from what he was writing. "Everything work itself out ok?"

She nodded wearily. "False alarm."

"It's still early days though, isn't it?" He assumed. "I know you never quite know with things like that, but you should feel happy enough that nothing untoward has happened to the baby."

She tilted her head at his philosophical attitude. It was a side to him she hadn't noticed that much before, yet there was something comforting about it. It was almost as though he was trying in the most understated of ways to not let her worry.

He felt her admiring gaze on him and it prompted him to peer up at her. "Something wrong?"

She shook her head, smiling softly. "No, no, not at all…I'm just glad that you managed to cope ok without me and that you were able to take over for an hour or so while I was gone." She noticed Harry wasn't where she'd left him.

"I took him home." Chris answered her unexpressed thought subtly. "There was just no way he would've been able to stay here. He looked _worse _when you left."

"Really?" She noted, incredulous. "He was that bad?"

"Bad enough to want me to take him _inside_." He pulled himself out from behind the desk, his soft blue eyes not leaving hers for a split second. "Everything _is_ ok with him, isn't it, Karen?"

"Yes, it is," Karen breathed, "he's just been feeling really poorly."

"And you're sure that is just it?"

She shakily resumed her place behind the desk. "I know my family has its share of _secrets_, Chris, but…that's all in the past now."

"I'm not really sure why he's feeling so sick or why he behaved the way I did when I stayed with him up to the time I left, but he didn't seem to wanna open up to _me_. And that was when it was just he and I. What does _that_ tell you?"

She looked to him pensively. "How _did_ he come across to you exactly?"

"Like he wanted to say something but couldn't quite get it out." He explained. "I don't wanna _worry_ you, but I'd talk to him when he feels better. Maybe he'll find it easier to tell you that way."

She looked to him appreciatively. "Thank you for your concern."

There was something the young male had tapped into – something he'd obviously sensed, either from her or from Harry. Maybe from both of them.  
>And he was quite a perceptive person. No beating about the bush with him if he sensed something that someone else was trying so hard to hide.<p>

"Just wanna look out for you." Chris smiled reassuringly. "If _you_ don't, who _will_?"  
>He left her to carry on where he left off, not at all realising she'd followed him with her gaze or that he felt her eyes on his frame as he disappeared out of the room.<br>He didn't want to press her any further if there was something she wasn't hiding. Maybe he got it wrong for once.

She tried to get back on track with what she was doing, finding it hard when all she could think about was him.  
>There was something so <em>reassuring<em> about him and she didn't know why she felt that way towards him. And he felt something _she_ didn't.  
>He was <em>concerned<em> for her, she knew that much – there couldn't have been anything else coming in between them, surely?

She kept her pen nib poised on the paper. Did she…no, she couldn't feel anything for him. He was a nice person, they both got on well together and they were both friends. Why not keep it that way?  
><em>Oh, my god, <em>she thought suddenly, _I think I've fallen for him_.

Chris went back to his own room, feeling less than thrilled about having to do _marking_ for a whole hour. It gave him some time to relax, but he could hardly call it _relaxing _when he had to draw ticks and crosses through papers.

He heard his door open, and Karen came into the room. It wasn't an _unpleasant_ thing to happen, not at all. It was something that was unforeseen yet pleasing at the same time.  
>"Did I do something wrong?" He made to get up out of his chair and go with her. Knowing him, he wrote or did something, which probably <em>confused <em>her somewhat.

"No, it isn't that, Chris." She admitted, suddenly coming over all shy and prompting him to stop behind his desk.

"Then what is it?" He got confused at her sudden change of temper. He knew she was someone who _never_ found it hard to say what she wanted to say, so he found it odd that she _did_ that time.  
>Unless…she <em>did <em>have something she so desperately wanted to talk to him about.  
>She didn't pick the most ideal place in which to tell him, it wasn't as private as her room – anyone could've walked by and maybe eavesdrop on their conversation if the door was wide open the way it was.<p>

"It's just that…" She felt butterflies in her stomach and she didn't dare look up into those eyes – those bright, soft blue eyes that questioningly tried to catch her gaze. To look up at them at that time was something she felt she wasn't worthy of enough to do.

"Just what?" Chris didn't want to push her into saying something she didn't _mean _to say, but her hesitation worried him a fair bit.

"This is going to sound silly," Karen eventually managed to say, "but are you up to anything tonight?"

He cast his gaze away. "Not that I _know_ of, no." He then looked to her. "You wanted to go out for a bit, is that why you asked?"

"I just…" She felt better to look at him that time. To find that he hadn't taken offence to her question made her feel more relieved.  
>What made her feel even <em>more<em> relieved was the fact that he asked her the most difficult thing of all. Maybe he twigged her nervousness. "I just feel like I could talk to you about anything."

"Sure." He spoke, with absolutely no hesitation. "You know that all you have to do is _ask_. You wanna meet me after work so we can then head out?"

She nodded slowly, not registering completely that she was going out with _him_. The one person she'd had her sights on since meeting.  
>She knew she shouldn't go overboard with how excited she was feeling, but she had real trouble holding that back.<br>She knew she had to calm down, as it wasn't even a proper _date_. It was just a _talk_ amongst _friends_. Nothing more.

"Usual place?" Chris's eyes took on a more playful appearance. He seemed to relax _also _at her wanting to talk to him.  
>He felt more than happy to let her do so. He knew there were very few other people she could've turned to.<p>

Karen was almost blown away by the different sparkles the blueness in his eyes gave off. It was such a pretty sight. "Usual place."

After work.  
>Chris and Karen drove to the bar separately.<br>The late afternoon sun's rays bathed the roads and pavement and shimmered along the grass as they went for a table outside.  
>They perched at it, facing each other.<p>

"I can't believe how nice it's turned out at this time." He remarked, loving the feel of the warm rays on his back through his jacket. It made him feel all the more relaxed and he peeled it off him to reveal to her his pure, fair-skinned flesh at his arms.

"I think we've got _you _to thank for that."

He felt himself blush at her flattering comment. "So what is it you want? I'm buying."

"Chris, I don't want you spoiling me…"

"I'm _not_," he affirmed, "we're outside of work now, remember?" It was still as though he wanted to maintain his relationship with her as strictly_ companionable_– nothing more.

Although…who _knew_ how it'd pan out? She always felt that there was something else going on with the young male.  
>He was still <em>single<em>, which she couldn't believe. And why the heck was he still single? He could have any woman he wanted yet he didn't _have_ one. He was extremely attractive; it wasn't as though he'd have much trouble…

Karen found her eyes straying as he went away to order. Her gaze fixed itself on his slender frame, finding it hard to get over how unbelievably _attractive_ he was. There wasn't an inch of _fat_ on him _anywhere_. He was so slim and athletic, and she was sure he must've worked out at some stage. Although _that_ was something she wouldn't have minded seeing for herself.  
>Small beads of sweat trailing down his neck from the sides of his face after a few intensive reps sprang to mind. All it took to complete the picture was for her to move her gaze downwards…<p>

_No_! She switched off that thought in her head. Chris did _not_ fancy her.  
>At least that was what she thought. Friendship was all he asked of her, nothing else.<br>But of course, there was no harm in looking _or_ envisaging such thoughts.

"Sorry," he noted apologetically when he came back, "they didn't quite have what you wanted, so I just went with the next best thing."

She smiled appreciatively. "At least you tried."

His eyes sparkled in the low sunlight, and it was something that tormented her relentlessly. _Why _did he have to be so alluring like that?  
>"So what was it you so urgently wanted me for?" He asked her teasingly, his posture taking on a more relaxed, casual appearance.<p>

She shyly smiled at his playful question before coming over more serious. "To be fair, I just wanted to get out for a bit. I don't do enough of this."

"It _is_ hard, I can imagine," he tilted his head attentively, "especially since you've got _another _one on the way."

"It's just the same thing, day in and day out." Karen went on. "I feel like I'm trapped sometimes. Don't _you _ever feel like that?"

"Well, no." Chris openly admitted. "It isn't something I can directly _relate_ to, but I can understand your frustration of it all. I don't have the same sort of domestic situation as yourself, but I do try and…break it up a little."

She peered down at the table coyly. "I just hope Harry is ok."

"I didn't realise he was _unwell_." He stated. "If anything, he kept that well hidden."

"He does tend to do that when he's poorly." She explained. "But it's been going on for so long…near enough a _fortnight_, and I don't know why he's like that. I thought at first it was something I _fed_ him, but he's been fussy with _everything _I give him."

"Kids do go through funny stages with food, though." He assured her. "If it _is _that, he'll grow out of it."

"And what if he _doesn't_?"

He shrugged. "You can't go and think the worst. Not when it comes to things like this."

Karen leant further forward towards him.

"I mean you've now got a _grandchild_ on the way." He pointed out. "There are _finer _things in life to think about now."

She smiled softly. She wished they could stay there all night and just talk – what about, she didn't know, but she felt a closeness with him and it no longer felt as daunting as she thought.


	3. Chapter 3

It was getting quite late, and the sun had pretty much blended into the purple-pink clouds.

"I don't want to go." Karen weakly smiled, finishing her drink.

"No, me neither," Chris admitted, "I don't often do this so it felt nice for a change. Especially when it's been a lovely warm day."

She looked over at him as he got his jacket back on. He only put it on as it had gotten incredibly breezy. Such a beautifully formed body…

"Maybe we can do this again some other time." He suggested.

She nodded softly. "I'd _love _to."

The next day.  
>It had gotten to mid-afternoon, and Jess came rushing in to see her mother, clutching her stomach and appearing as though she was in extreme pain.<p>

Karen peered up from what she was writing, noticing her daughter's pain-stricken expression. "It's happened, hasn't it?"

She nodded slowly. "I-I'm scared."

"Don't be scared," she got her car keys out ready, "I'm going to take you to the A and E and they'll look after you, I promise."

She made her way down to Chris's room with her in tow. He was halfway through a set, but she knew it was just a fleeting visit to see him and tell him what was going on.  
>She rapped on his door, prompting him to peer up from what he was writing at his sitting position at his desk.<p>

He swiftly went outside, having _some _idea of what had happened when he noticed Jess loitering about and having real trouble keeping still. "Are you going to take her?"

She nodded steadily. She was glad that he remembered and that he didn't appear as though he didn't know what she was on about. "She's getting really bad labour pains."

He looked over at the time. "Is it likely you'll be back before everywhere gets locked up?"

Karen didn't seem so sure.

"If you do manage to get away ten or five minutes before that happens, I shouldn't worry. I'd carry on home."

She looked to the young male, incredulous. "Are you _sure_?" She breathed.

"Sure." Chris's blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight that had crept through the nearby windows. "I don't mind covering that for you. I think you've got _enough _to cope with."

"Oh…" Her eyes glazed over. "I forgot. I need to collect the medication for Harry."  
>She'd grown so worried about Harry that she sent out for a doctor the previous night after she came back from the small rendezvous between them.<p>

Even the doctor wasn't a hundred percent sure what he had, but he prescribed antibiotics for him in case it was a mild infection.  
>She realised she mightn't have gotten away from the hospital in time to get them before the clinic closed.<p>

"_I _can collect that for you." He offered.

She breathed a sigh of relief. "You're a _lifesaver_."

After he locked up and picked up Harry's prescription, Chris pulled up outside Karen's place, and waited for someone to answer the door.

It slowly opened, and Harry dimly appeared.

"Hey there, Harry," he spoke softly, "you wanna let me in so I can give you these?"

His eyebrows lowered in confusion. "I…what are they?"  
>He obviously caught him at a time when he was <em>sleeping<em>. Or _was_ he?

"What your doctor wanted to give you." He replied, frowning in perplexity when he saw his eyes dart this way and that.  
>He was sure that he had little <em>more <em>than an infection and he wanted answers that time. "What's wrong?"

Harry snapped to. "Come in."

He took him through to the lounge, where he gave him the small package of prescriptions. He didn't realise his mum had gone to such trouble to make sure he got better.

"They what you wanted?"

He nodded slowly, not wanting to hold off telling him any longer.

"Harry, everything is ok with you and your mum and sister, right?" He tilted his head in mild concern, sensing that familiarly strange feeling again. "Just that you seemed really preoccupied a few seconds ago."

"There _is _something I wanna talk to you about." Harry heavily sat down on a nearby sofa, with Chris perching beside him. He felt awkward at having to tell him.

"Ok," he turned his body towards him, "talk away."

He peered down at the floor, finding that easier to focus on than the older male's attentive blue eyes. When his attentions were completely fixed, the blueness in the orbs set slightly, like gemstones tended to do in a certain light.  
>"You're going to think I'm being stupid."<p>

"Harry, I can _not _think that." He reassured him gently. "I've heard some crazy stuff in my job, it's probably something I haven't heard before."

"Well," he drew in a small breath, "now that Jess is expecting a baby sometime soon, I won't be the youngest any more."

"You think that your mum's going to forget about you, don't you?" He assumed. He _knew_ something bothered him, but he wasn't sure what. Of course, he only _assumed_ the actual reason Harry was off was because he was sick, and so he could still be genuinely unwell. "She won't forget about you, don't worry. It's not as though her attentions are going to stray from you _or_ your sisters. She's not going to be looking after Jess's baby, is she? That's _her _job."

Harry nodded slowly. "But the baby's going to get all the attention and I'll feel left out."

Chris tried to get the younger male to prise his gaze from the floor, but he wasn't playing along. "But that's natural. I probably won't understand the similar feelings you have 'cause I don't _have_ any brothers or sisters, but whatever your mum feels towards Jess's baby, it doesn't mean she loves you any less."

"Y-you mean that?" He looked to him that time, finding comfort in his words. He wanted to believe him, he really did.

"_Sure _I mean it." He placed a hand on his shoulder. "That why you told your mum you weren't very well?"

He nodded slowly. "Are you going to tell her?"

"No, don't worry." He rubbed him there softly. "This is between us. But try not to worry about any of this. It's going to feel different to have someone younger and newer come into the family, but the strangeness of it will go away, I promise. Maybe you'll start to find it _exciting_."

"I feel awful that I lied to her and you, though."

"_Don't _feel awful." He reassured him. "What you're feeling is normal and you're probably not the first to feel that way. There are others out there who are going through – and feeling – the same way as you."  
>He heard his mobile go off in his back pocket and he answered it.<p>

"It's only me." Karen's voice thinly came through the other end.

"Everything go ok?" Chris could only assume Jess had her baby. That said, it was a very quick delivery.

"She hasn't given birth yet," she explained, "but she's in a lot of pain and so the doctors are thinking of inducing her."

"How about _you_?" He wanted to know. "Are _you _holding up ok?"

"I'm _fine_, Chris, absolutely fine."

He _knew_ that she wasn't as fine as she was making herself out to be. "You don't _sound_ it. If anything, you sound _tired_."  
>Maybe the stress of having her own daughter go through labour had gotten to her.<br>"You should give yourself a _break_…maybe get home and go to bed."

"I'll be ok…" Her voice tailed off due to exhaustion. "I'll only stay till she gives birth."

"But that could take some time." He warned. "Even if she gets induced, that doesn't mean it'll be over and done with just like that."

It was quiet her end.

"I know I sound as though I'm telling you to not care about her, but I'm not trying to sound like that. Think about what all this is doing to _you _as well as her."

"I guess you're right." Karen stated slowly.

"I don't know about me being _right _exactly," Chris noted, "but you can't stay up there and feel as tired and stressed out as you sound right now."

She felt so reassured and comforted by his words.

"You can always go up and see her tomorrow." He went on. "But staying up there…that's not doing you any good at all."

She wished that she went back to her place and found him waiting outside for her in his car – just for him to take her out somewhere like they went to the previous afternoon and talk about anything.

"I'll see you at work tomorrow, ok?"

That made her heart sink slightly. She knew that he meant nothing by what he'd said, but he wanted her to recharge – to try and clear any worry she understandably felt for Jess.  
>"Ok." She eventually agreed. "See you then."<p>

Chris approached the turning to his road, noticing that the hooded figure was still huddled up in the nearby bus shelter. He knew he could no longer ignore them that time.  
>He parked up outside his flat, locking his car up and going over to the slightly rain-battered shelter.<br>He knelt down beside them, placing a hand on their shoulder. "You ok there?"

They gave a sharp jolt from the contact.

He wanted to have more eye contact with them, and so he carefully lifted the fairly damp hood off their head.  
>He found himself gazing into a pair of piercing blue eyes, almost the same colour as his yet more intense.<p>

The reasonably damp and tangled long, dark brown hair fluttered way from her youthful face, and Chris could gauge her at no older than eighteen.  
>She looked familiar, where from he wasn't entirely sure.<p>

"You got somewhere to go?"

She shook her head softly, suddenly finding him more interesting to look at. She found herself face to face with _him_– the one person she'd been looking for.

"I don't really like the idea of you spending another night out here." He continued, looking her over.

Her eyes widened somewhat. How did _he _know that she'd spent the last night out there?

"I noticed you huddled up in the bus stop earlier this morning." He explained, letting her into his flat.  
>He took a closer look at her, sliding her damp hair between his index finger and thumb. "You're wet through."<p>

She shivered from his affectionate touch, and it was something that she freely welcomed. Although he was a complete stranger to her, it was the contact he dealt to her that was so soothingly familiar.  
>She placed her hand around his wrist, as he twirled a wavy wisp of damp hair around his index finger. She caressed the inside of his wrist with her thumb.<p>

"Hey," Chris spoke softly, "whatever's happened, it's over now. You're safe and you're with me."

She edged away slowly and removed her hand from around his wrist.  
>He felt so warm and soft and she felt like wrapping her arms around him, but he didn't know her and she didn't know him. For that reason, it certainly would've made him feel uncomfortable at the action.<p>

"I should think about getting you to bed." He supposed. "I need to go to work tomorrow and you're probably really tired."


	4. Chapter 4

Chris took the girl to the spare room in his flat, ensuring he got a few blankets together.  
>The temperature had really dropped during the transition from afternoon to evening, and he would've hated for her to get cold.<br>He threw one large, thick blanket on the floor and looked to her as she hung in the room's doorway.  
>"Make yourself comfortable." His eyes shimmered in the soft dimness when he finished spreading them out for her to slip under.<p>

She knelt down beside him, going down to his level. She wasn't that much shorter than him, although he wasn't that tall to start with. Her piercing blue eyes penetrated his softer ones and she softly cupped his face with one hand.

Chris almost jumped from the contact, but he didn't exactly _reject_ it. His expression took on a more perplexed look and he automatically tilted his body more towards her.  
>He felt something strangely <em>familiar<em> about the touch and there was a clear closeness between them. It was almost as though she _knew_ him – or that he knew _her_ from a previous life.

He snapped to. Who was he to think that? Exhaustion was probably catching up with him, and so could be making him think all sorts of things. Maybe some sleep would sort it all out.  
>"Get some sleep, ok?" He got up from his bent-down position. "I'll see you in the morning before I go to work."<p>

She nodded dimly, as he made to leave the room. She took in his slender form, roving her gaze down the sides of his waist to his legs.  
>She gauged him at no more than twenty-seven and she panicked at the thought that maybe she'd gone to the wrong flat.<br>After all, if he was as young as he _looked_, then there was just no way there was any connection between them.

She lay down in amongst the warm blankets, her thoughts struggling to stray from the young male. She couldn't get over how _young_ he was – or _looked_ for that matter, and so maybe her mum had perhaps given her the wrong information about him.  
>She looked over towards the door where he once stood, finding that he'd gone.<br>If only he was still there she may've had more guts to talk to him.

Chris stripped himself down after heavily sitting down on the bed. He had a strange feeling that something was going on that he should _really_ know about.  
>Did she…<em>know<em> him? Did she _like_ him? Or had he completely got it wrong and was simply kidding himself?  
>Feeling every muscle in his body weigh down from sheer exhaustion and confusion of the whole situation, he slipped into bed and lay down on his back.<br>He peered up at the ceiling, wishing he knew more about what was going on.

Karen couldn't get Chris out of her mind.  
>Everything about that afternoon they spent together after work was <em>perfect<em>, and she felt better after talking to him. It didn't even have to be _work_ related but whatever they talked about, the topic never seemed to be out of context for them.  
>She found him so enthralling to focus on. His posture was fairly relaxed and there was a warmth in his eyes that made her feel like she could talk about anything she wanted.<p>

She wanted to see him _more_ like that – before it got to the stage where it got too much for her to tell him how she felt towards him.  
><em>Tomorrow<em>, she thought to herself firmly, _tomorrow I'm going to tell him everything._

The next morning.  
>The young girl opened her eyes, afraid to open them when she felt the bright sun hit her across her eyelids. She managed to feel brave enough to open them and she sat up in amongst the blankets once she'd done so.<br>She got up out of bed, surprised at the time. A few minutes before seven.  
>Making herself pretty much presentable, she opened the door to the spare room, finding Chris sitting down in the lounge.<p>

"Hey," he looked to her, his bright blue eyes glistening coolly in the early morning light, "how'd you sleep?"

She smiled a little. "Pretty good." She even surprised herself at gathering the courage to speak that time.

He peered away slowly, knowing that he could no longer inhibit his suspicions towards the way he was feeling about the whole situation. He got up, placing a hand on his hip before gazing over at her.  
>"You pretty much ready to go now?"<p>

She tilted her head slightly. "Go where?"

"Well…I mean surely you've got to think about heading off to _school_." He knew she looked older than a schoolchild, but she could well have stayed on an extra year, for all he knew. Some of the kids where he worked did.

She said nothing but realised she was going to have to tell him _everything _about why she came to him specifically.

"Or work." He added with a hint of awkwardness.

She cast her gaze to the floor slowly when the young male came over to her.  
>She knew he wanted answers just as much as <em>she <em>wanted answers from him, but that was going to be quite hard if he wasn't staying around and had somewhere else to go.

"You don't _have _anywhere else to go…do you?"

She shook her head sadly.

"I can't let you leave here only for you to go to where you were before." Chris admitted. "It's not right."

The girl smiled weakly. "I'm not asking for you to let me stay here."

"It's not a problem if you _wanted_ to stay. _I _don't mind; it'd only just be you and I."

She shook her head. "I'm going to cause more problems for you by staying. You don't even know who I am."

He tilted his head in slight confusion. "It doesn't matter to me who you are or what you've done…it doesn't even matter to me where you came from."  
>That he knew wasn't completely true, as he would've dearly loved to talk to her parents who let her sleep on the streets like that.<br>"You haven't caused me any problems by staying and you're certainly not _going _to if I let you do so from now on."

"So it wouldn't matter to you if I said I was your _daughter_?"

That threw Chris's assumption right out of the window.  
>The word 'daughter' was something he hadn't expected to hear from her.<br>He looked her over, taking in her appearance. She didn't strike an _exact _resemblance to him, but there were some attributes she had that were similar to his.

He thought back to the previous night, when she placed a hand around his wrist – her eyes meeting his.  
>Both of them obviously sensed something between them, and he didn't dislike the contact. He couldn't have disliked it anyway, if he didn't pull his hand away from her.<p>

He snapped to and came closer to her, approaching her with an almost weighed down gait.  
>Swallowing hard, he twirled his index finger around her dried, slightly wavy hair and gazed into her piercing blue eyes.<br>He didn't want to accept it – however real it was, he didn't want to take on the responsibility of looking after a _teenager_. He wouldn't know where to begin!

She sensed he was confused, but something told her that he _did_ believe her.  
>His touch continued through her hair, almost as if he was trying to work things out for himself. The contact between them no longer felt <em>foreign <em>to either.

"I've waited so long to find you," she softly stated, placing her hand around his slender wrist, "and now I _have_."

It was _surreal_, he had to admit. After all, it wasn't every day a young girl turns up on his doorstep, stays round his place and tells him the following day that she was his _daughter_.  
>He looked over at the time, and he realised he had to think about going.<br>"I have to go now," he explained, pulling himself away so he could get his jacket on, "I'll see you when I get back, ok?"

"To talk?" She tilted her head in mild hope. She _hoped _that he'd want to talk with her once he'd gotten back. There were so many questions she had for him.

"S-sure, yeah. To talk." Chris didn't sound overly sure and he certainly didn't _feel _it.  
>He got his car keys from his jacket pocket, got his stuff together and left the flat before locking the door.<p>

All through the drive to work, it was almost as if he was running on autopilot.  
>It wasn't as though he was driving <em>recklessly<em>, but going the same route so often had gotten quite easy to him – especially when certain things were bothering him.  
>He glided in through the gates, parking up in his usual spot. He sat back in his seat, going over and over again the contact – if not the conversation – between them.<p>

_"I've waited so long to find you, and now I have."_

He swallowed hard. He dreaded to think in what sort of state she'd be in by the time he got back. He didn't know what her _mental_ state was like, he knew very little about her background and as for when "it" happened he did not have a clue.  
>For a split second he convinced himself it was all a ploy to get him to develop feelings for her – <em>paternal<em> feelings at that – and then maybe take advantage of him when he least expected it.  
>But then again, why <em>him<em>? He didn't have anything that would make _anyone_, be it a girl of her age or older, take advantage of him.

He snapped to. He couldn't think things like that.  
>She came to him for a <em>reason<em> and he wanted to know what that reason was.  
>Taking a look at what the time was, he decided not to dwell on it any further, got out of the car and locked it up.<br>The questions he was burning to ask were going to have to wait.


	5. Chapter 5

Chris tried to not let the previous night and the morning's earlier events get to him.  
>Something straightforward and undemanding would probably be enough to distract the new thoughts and unusual feelings. Marking seemed to be compatible enough for such problems.<p>

Of course, it wasn't a long-term solution and he knew that after work, he had to go back to his flat and fire all manner of questions at the young girl who happened to be staying there – and not forgetting that he had to be subjected to the ones that _she _was so desperate to ask him.  
>And she had every right to interrogate him – if in fact he <em>did<em> happen to be whom she _came _to see.

He found himself running on autopilot again, and he couldn't help but start to find it _frustrating_.  
>It certainly didn't help when he vaguely heard his room's door open and not hear the footsteps approach him, as he remained perched over his desk.<p>

He almost jumped a foot out of his chair as he inadvertently glanced up and found that Karen was standing not too far from him.  
>"Y-you <em>scared <em>me."

She smiled a little in amusement at his little jump.  
>"On edge for once, I see." She teased, watching him stop what he was writing and put his pen down. "I thought <em>you're<em> meant to be the one telling _me _to chill out, not the other way round."

"Sorry," he quickly apologised, "just haven't slept all that well."

She seemed more concerned. She knew Chris _always_ came in, in a sunny disposition. Unless…it was because it was a _Tuesday_. But that was silly; he came in quite cheerfully _whatever_ day of the week it was.  
>"You <em>seem <em>as though you've slept ok."

He knew she was going to catch him out if he wasn't quick enough. "Oh, I got to sleep ok, but I kept waking up at really stupid times."

"It didn't exactly help as it was so _cold_." She admitted. "You should throw some thick blankets on top of your bed so you stay warm. That's what _I _tend to do when the temperature drops like that."

"I can't relax when I have lots of blankets on top of me like that." He dimly protested, feeling her hand on his shoulder. He froze at the action, and he didn't know why he didn't like it.  
>They were close enough to <em>embrace<em> such contact, but if things were on his mind, then it was probably better if he completely froze anything and everything out – to focus on something else. Something he considered _therapeutic_.

Karen frowned at his agitation, and squeezed him there to try and relax him.  
>"I'd get yourself home after work and get some sleep." She suggested.<p>

Chris knew that wouldn't help anything. He knew that too much sleep wasn't good and he also knew that there was absolutely no way he was going to be able to even _rest _when he got home.  
>He was going to be interrogated by someone claiming to be his daughter and he was going to have to find the energy to do the same with her. He shrugged her hand off him, in order to reject it.<p>

"Chris, I…" She was shocked at his response. "I didn't mean to annoy you."

"I'll be fine," he felt a headache start, "I think I need to be by myself."

"I want to help you." She stated, her voice coming over soft yet faint. "If you want to go on _lighter _duties…"

"I said 'I_'ll be fine'_." His answer came out quite harsh, and it was a tone he wasn't used to expressing. "I said I'd be fine, so just _drop_ it. I don't want people making a fuss over me."

She pulled away from him, watching him sharply pick up his pen and automatically go back to where he'd missed off. "I was only trying to _help_ you. Next time I don't think I'll _bother_."  
>And with that, she briskly left the room, closing the door behind her.<p>

Chris stopped what he was writing, pressing the nib against the box he was going to tick. He felt unbelievably guilty, and he had every right to feel that way.  
>He almost felt like chasing after Karen down the corridor, stopping her and apologising to her <em>profusely<em> for talking to her in such a way. But they were _friends_, and how would anyone else perceive his behaviour?

For all they knew, students and other staff alike could see it as _courting_ behaviour, and that was something he was trying to steer well clear of.  
>He did <em>not <em>fancy her – and he would not give anyone else the satisfaction of holding such thoughts.

Two-thirds through Chris's first set, Tom knocked on the door and signalled for him to come out.  
>Frowning, he did as he was asked and carefully shut the door behind him as the two males stood out in the corridor together.<br>He'd hoped Karen hadn't told _Tom _everything and had sent for him to take him to her.

"Karen asked me to ask you to cover for her." He explained. "She just left to go up to the hospital to see Jess."

So she decided to use him as a mediator for them both. Things really _were _that bad between them.

"She only had to come and see me," he replied loosely, "I've been here all morning, Tom."

He shook his head. "She knew you had a few more sets than yesterday, so she decided to send me down to see you instead of asking you to come up to see her. After this set's over, she said for you to cancel your other ones."

"Well, that was very thoughtful of her, I guess…" He felt glad that his answer didn't come out particularly _sarcastic_.

Tom frowned at his unreceptive answer. "Everything ok, mate?"

He snapped to. "I'm fine." He made to go back in. "I'm fine…just got things on my mind, that's all."

"Don't let it get to you," he smiled softly, "we need you with us."

Chris went back into his set, hearing a small disturbance at the back of the room. He peered up from what he was doing.  
>On top of not really knowing what to do when he got home, he did not want to have to deal with fighting kids.<p>

Choosing to remain as composed as he could, he emerged from behind his desk and went over to the commotion. He stood there quite patiently, his arms crossed over his broad chest. "Something you wanna tell me, boys?"

"It's Harry," one of them pointed out, "he's being stupid."

He didn't realise it came to the end of the set.  
>By the time Tom had finished talking to him, that was pretty much a sixth of the remainder of it.<p>

The kids made a move to leave, and as Harry went to do so, Chris quickly placed a hand on his shoulder to make him stay.

"Not _you_," he noted firmly, "not till you explain to me why you were disrupting the set."

"I wasn't disrupting anything."

"Harry, I…" He perched himself on a chair next to him. "Are you sure you should be back in? You still don't look too good and you know that if you feel poorly, you should be at home and in bed."  
>He grew worried at what could be making him so ill. If the doctor had given him medication for an infection he didn't have, then what was going on with him?<br>"Have you been having trouble eating at all?"

"What's that got to do with _you_?"

Now he knew he felt particularly bad as he had problems of his own to contend with when he got home, but what was happening in front of him was something he could not ignore.  
>He <em>did<em>, however, ignore Harry's belligerent response. He was being defensive, and that was something he couldn't blame him for. "You don't have to push me away, I'm here to help you. And if you're worried at me telling your mum, don't worry 'cause I won't say anything. Just tell me, Harry."

The younger male looked away, feeling tears build up behind his eyes. What he was feeling and how he was coping was something he didn't want to own up to. But Chris offered him complete privacy, and he wasn't someone who was going to break a promise like that. He closed his eyes and nodded slowly.

"What sort of problems have you had?" He wanted to know, concern clearly there in his voice. "Eating in general or…something more specific?"

"You'll take me to a shrink." He stated dimly.

"No, I won't. I can suggest you something that'd help but I can't do anything till you tell me." His grip on him became more supportive than restrictive and he wished he would give him some form of eye contact – something that told him that he trusted him enough. "I've given you my word I won't tell your mum, so the least you can do for me is to be honest with me."

Harry drew in a small sigh. "I haven't eaten for a few days. I feel so bad about it and I don't know why."

"You're just working out your feelings right now, that's all." He explained, realising he was starting to sound like a shrink. "It's almost a coping mechanism, if you like. You feel bad about it 'cause you're stopping something that you know you shouldn't."

"It's not like I don't _wanna _eat, but…"

"…You just do it anyway." Chris came over more thoughtful. "'Cause you don't have anyone else to talk to about this, and that only you and I know about it, I think you should start writing your feelings down from now on. Whenever you feel bad or upset or annoyed, just write it down. You'll find that doing something like that makes it better."

He nodded in acknowledgement.

"If it doesn't work or you wanna talk to me some more about it, then just come back and see me. It'll take some time, but it'll go away. It might even go away when the baby comes."

Once Harry had gone, the older male transferred to Karen's room so he could cover for her.

A few minutes since he got there, his mobile went off and he quickly answered it. He was surprised to find who had called him.  
>What they happened to call him for was something that would forever resound in his thoughts.<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

Chris sped up to the hospital as soon as he could get away from work. He flew up to the reception desk, terror seizing him at his gut.  
>"Karen Fisher," he explained faintly, "I'm here to see her."<br>He was directed to go to the A + E ward, but was told to wait outside in the corridor. There were a few chairs outside and he heavily sat down on one of them.

He felt absolutely _awful_ – even more so that he didn't even apologise to Karen for speaking to her in such a way before the accident had occurred.  
>He remembered very little about the accident in general. As soon as the cops had called him to tell him what had happened, he completely disconnected, blankly hung up and ran on autopilot till he knew he could leave.<p>

A nurse came up to him after exiting the ward. "You can go in and see her now if you want." She smiled softly.

He shakily went in, and he was escorted to where she was lying in bed.  
>"How is she?" He asked the nurse.<p>

"She sustained a minor fracture to her leg, but apart from that she's fine."

_Really_? He was quite surprised that she wasn't as badly hurt as the cops on the line made her out to be. He stood next to the bed she was in, finding a few tubes and wires going to and from her.  
>She was on a drip and even though he couldn't see it from under the blankets, he guessed her leg had been splinted or bandaged up.<p>

Karen's eyes flew open, taking Chris completely by surprise. "I must be dreaming."

He smirked slightly. "No, but you _are _alive." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "How do you feel?"

"A bit achy, but I guess that's to be expected after having a broken leg."

"The nurse explained to me that you sustained a minor fracture, but I think you should take some time off so that it gets better."

She laughed a little. "Anything to make sure you stay in charge."

He pouted in mock offence. "Now that's not very nice." He was, however, glad she didn't lose her sense of humour. "No, I _do _want you to get better. You know I do."

She was taken aback at the fondness he so clearly conveyed to her, and she placed a hand on top of his. He didn't refuse her contact that time.

"I wanna apologise for the way I talked to you earlier," Chris started quietly, "you didn't deserve to be talked to like that, and just 'cause I wasn't feeling particularly good didn't mean I had to take it out on you."

She stroked him over the back of his hand softly with her thumb.  
>"I should've known you wanted to be by yourself earlier." She admitted. "It's just that usually you're such a chirpy person in the mornings that it didn't seem right for you to be so…so…"<p>

"…_Sulky_?" He finished for her.

Karen smirked in amusement. "If you like."

"So what exactly did you do to end up in here?" He asked her teasingly, happy that they'd patched things up between them.

She shook her head sadly. "I remember very little about the incident."

"Y-you mean you can't remember _any_ of it? _At all_?" He noted incredulously.

"I remember leaving the school to go to Jess and I remember waking up in here…but the time between then it just a complete blur."

"Sounds like you've got _concussion_." Chris replied blankly, wishing there was something he could've done to help or at least make it all better. "Do the doctors know that you can't remember a lot about it?"

She shrugged. "They haven't asked me anything like that. All they've said is for me to have my leg splinted, put in a cast and for me to stay in overnight."

He frowned in concern at that. "I guess you can't really question them. They're meant to know what they're doing and so maybe they'll ask you tomorrow. But the fact that you can't remember a lot about what had happened…that doesn't strike me as something that should be ignored."

She kept the stroking at his hand going. "I presume I'm going to miss out on us going out for a few hours after work then."

"No, of course not." Chris smirked playfully. "We can do that when you're better. Right now the important thing for you is to get some sleep and do what the doctors tell you to."

Karen drew in a small sigh.

"I know it'll mean you being off work for some time, but I'd rather you be at home getting better." He squeezed her at her shoulder in a comforting way, not knowing that inside it was doing incredible things to her.

She wished he could stay for longer – maybe even stay the night so he could watch over her. But he had a job to go back to the following day and he'd be extremely tired by the time he had to be in.  
>She watched him get his car keys out as he was starting to make a move to go. "Jess had her baby, by the way."<p>

"She _did_?"

She nodded slowly. "A little girl. They've already been discharged."

"That's a good sign." He noted. "And that also means that she may be able to look after you when _you're _ready to be discharged from here."

She laughed to herself at his quip. "I'd like to see _that _happen."

"I'll give the nurses here my number," he explained, "so that when you're ready to come out, I can take you home. You're not going to have the full use of your leg for some time."

"Y-you'll _do_ that?" She stated, incredulously. "You'll do that…for _me_?"

"Sure."

Chris went back to his place once he gave the ward sister his number and left the hospital.  
>He didn't realise how late it had gotten, and he didn't even know if the young girl he let stay the previous night was still there.<p>

His question was answered when he felt two hands on him, at each of his arms, and then press him up against the wall.

"Why are you late?" Two piercing blue eyes bore into his softer orbs.

"I had to see someone." He explained, feeling their grip loosen. "They weren't very well."  
>He switched the lights on, allowing the room to be flooded in a dimly soft glow and for her to withdrew from him.<p>

"Was it just an excuse to get out of talking to me," she wanted to know, "or were you up to something _else_?"

"No!" He frowned. "Why would I wanna get out of talking to you? If you know me and you wanted to see me for a reason, then that's not something I should _condone._"

It fell silent between them.

Eventually she spoke: "Maybe you didn't _wanna _talk to me."

He felt that comment hit him somewhat. He didn't realise that hearing such a remark from someone who he barely knew hurt so much. "Ok, so what about me _do _you know?"

She asked him about a relationship he had with her mum. They were both quite young at the time, and the relationship itself was of one that didn't last. "…And so my mum had me when she was 12. She didn't seem to wanna talk about _you _a lot."

Chris inched closer to her from his sitting position.  
>"We were both really young." He admitted. "A-a relationship like the sort <em>we <em>had just couldn't go on."

"She told me you weren't father material."

He wasn't sure what hurt more – being accused of not wanting to talk to her or being labelled as an unfit father.  
>He didn't know where the assumption of him not being able to raise a child had come from. It wasn't as though he wouldn't have been up to the job of it.<p>

"I'm eighteen years old," she placed her hand on top of his, "and I feel that I should blame you for not being there for me when you _should've _been."

He watched her get up from her sitting position and she got her jacket back on. He knew full well that she was going to go back onto the streets, earn money in the most squalid of ways and forget all about him – maybe even hold a grudge against him for the rest of her life.  
>That was no way for a girl of her age to carry on – especially when she happened to be of his making.<p>

She glanced over at him, an icy glint in her eyes as she made to leave.

"I can understand why you blame me." He spoke up, making to go over to her and prompting her to loosen her hold on the door latch. "But I'm here now. You've come to see me."

"But you can't be my dad if my mum said – "

"I don't care what your mum said about me," Chris pushed the door closed again, "you're mine and I want you to stay."  
>To him, it was clear that his ex had made up a few lies in her time about him. Maybe she felt so bad as she was pregnant at such an early age. He wasn't sure, but for whatever reason, it wasn't very nice.<p>

She shivered as he softly cupped her face and skimmed his thumb over one carefully rounded cheekbone. The touch sent warm shocks to her spine and moved down. It was so soothing and paternal.

"I'm asking you to stay."

She shakily placed a hand around his arm, squeezing the firm muscle at his bicep. For a male of his age, he was incredibly fit.  
>She nodded slowly. "I'll stay with you."<p>

Hesitantly, he took her into an embrace, and she wrapped her arms around his waist.  
>Their bodies pressed together, and they must've stayed like that for a few minutes – simply holding each other there and taking in each other's closeness.<br>He wasn't sure what he felt for her, but he could safely say he didn't _love _her. Not as of yet, anyway. They had to bond some more before any of that came about.

"You should think about going to bed." He supposed.

She nodded slowly, and she sat down on the bed with him following. She cupped his face, caressing the soft, dewy skin as he wrapped his arms around her again. Contact like that was obviously something that felt right to them at that point.

He felt her hand rub him down his back, and it was touch that made him relax against her. He closed his eyes and drew in a small sigh from the relaxing tempo.  
>What had happened was something he never, <em>ever <em>thought would happen.

She pulled away from him and slipped in amongst the blankets. Her eyes took on a softer appearance and she gave him a small kiss on his cheek.

"Go to sleep now." Chris didn't know why he should even be telling a girl at her age to go to sleep, but there was a clear protectiveness towards her that he quickly adopted. Maybe it was due to the fact that he'd lost her the first time and he didn't want to lose her again.

Her eyes softly closed and he watched her slip into a very deep sleep.  
>She obviously found that no problem now that she'd gotten what she came for.<p>

He leant over her, moving her dark bangs out of the way so he could kiss her on her forehead.  
>She was so pretty, and looked all the more beautiful when she was peacefully sleeping. "Sleep well, princess."<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N Thanks for all R & Rs!  
>More chapters on the way!<em>

_xXx_

The next morning.  
>Chris awoke, finding the sun's rays had filtered in through the window and flooded onto the bed.<br>He wished he didn't have to get up for work – just lie there and soak up the sunshine all day.  
>He looked over at the time, mentally sulking at having to get up. At least it was edging towards the end of the week.<p>

He tiredly sat up, already dreaming about slipping back into bed, disappearing under the blankets and going back to sleep. He wasn't exactly _exhausted_, but it was surprising how draining the previous day was.  
>He decided to check up on Clara, and he hovered by the spare room's door once he'd gotten himself dressed. She was still deeply asleep.<p>

He guessed that she was probably still tired from not knowing where he'd gotten to when he said he would come back after work to talk. It got so late that night, and he was sure that she'd convinced herself that he'd gone back on his word.  
>He sat next to her on the bed, sliding his fingertips through her hair as it'd fallen slightly askew from tossing and turning during the night.<p>

He noticed her clothes remained folded up at the far end of the bed, and he realised that those were all she had. What she'd carried about in her bag, he didn't know, but he could probably rest assured that there were no spare clothes in that.

She stirred within the blankets, and her eyelids fluttered open. "What's the time?"

"Just gone seven." Chris watched her rub her eyes free from sleep.

She sat up, seeing him dismount the bed and move over to the window so he could look at her better.  
>He had to admit that she <em>did <em>look much better. She didn't exactly look unwell or anything, but the previous day's events did take its toll on her.

"Are those the only clothes you have?" He asked her eventually, as she watched him tilt his head towards the folded up ones near to her.

Clara shrugged. "I can manage."

"Don't be silly," he made to disappear from the room, "not if they're the only ones you've got, you won't."

She felt a wave of guilt crash over her. She knew that he meant well and he did want to treat her as he would if she'd been with him for longer than she had, but she didn't want him to fuss over her.

He came back into the room, handing her his debit card.  
>"Take it," he urged her, "I can give you the PIN so that you can use it."<p>

She took it from him, looking to him in surprise. "This is _yours_."

Chris took on a more steadier posture.

"You've barely known me for long enough to trust me, surely."

"You're my _daughter_." He reiterated. "I think I can _trust _you enough from now on, Clara."

Clara looked to him, puzzled.

"Once you've gotten yourself sorted, I can give you a lift into the centre." He noted as he got his jacket on. "Nowhere will be open as it'd be too early, but I'd rather drop you down so I know you're there."

"But you have to go to work."

"I can carry on into work, it's not a problem." He assured her. "I've got to think about going soon, and I don't really wanna be late."

Being as good as his word, he dropped her off into the centre.  
>"I won't be back as late tonight," he explained, "so if you want, you can meet me back here to be picked up."<p>

"If that's not too much trouble…" She made to get out of the car and went to close the door to let him carry on. She didn't want to make him late, but then again, she didn't know what time he even _started_.  
>She was starting to think that he was one of those who worked quite unsociable hours. And what exactly <em>did<em> he work as? They were all questions she was burning to ask him.

"No, it isn't." He looked to her, an air of concern clearly there on his features. "Just be careful, ok? And keep that card on you at all times."

She nodded, evidently thankful for what he was doing for her. "I will."

He sped off, leaving her on her own.

Chris went into work, relieved that he was there before anyone else. Not that it was a _race _as such, but if he were to be in charge for the time being, he had to ensure everything was ok – plus having to tell everyone else about the situation.

He got in to Karen's room, heavily sitting down behind her desk. He was _worried_ about her, sure, and he didn't even know if she was well enough to be discharged as the doctors had said she would be.  
>He would have to check with the hospital first to make sure.<p>

Karen woke up, hearing the familiar sound of the monitors' constant beeping. She opened her eyes, noticing the nurse looking over her drip.  
>She half-expected Chris to be there, but she looked over at the time, realising that he was probably at work, getting things sorted.<br>She smirked to herself. If he had _his_way, he'd have gotten there at the crack of dawn.

Images of him bent forwards behind her desk, diligently writing sprung to mind and it was something she considered highly amusing.  
>He was always such a hard worker, but that wasn't what attracted her to him.<p>

She drew in a small sigh, looking over to where he was standing the previous night. If only he were still there.

"I think you're pretty much ready to go." The nurse cheerily noted to her. "We'll have to go through the discharge papers and give you a few bits and pieces that'll help you, but everything's turned out well."

She nodded dimly.

"Have you got someone to come and collect you?"

Chris parked up in the hospital's car park at lunchtime. He _absolutely_resented paying out so much money to simply go in and pick someone up, but there was little he could've done about it.

He went to the discharge ward, seeing Karen sitting up in a chair with her leg in a cast.  
>"Oh dear," he smiled softly, "you look as though you've been in the wars with your leg plastered up like that."<p>

She breathed a sigh of relief at seeing him come over to her. "You're here."

"I said I'd come to get you, didn't I?" He noted playfully, sitting beside her. "You pretty much feel ready to go?"

"I guess so," she weakly got up, although not without his help, "but I'm still finding it hard to get used to using the crutches they've given me."

"Oh, you'll soon find using them no problem." He assured her, as she steadied herself with them.

"Things at the school ok?"

"Not worrying about things at work _already_, are you?" He smirked. "You've barely gotten out of the _hospital _yet!"

"Just concerned, that's all."

"Well, concern yourself no longer." Chris got his car keys out. "I'm taking you straight home and once I've done that, you're going to _rest_."

She looked to him thankfully. "You're being so good to me."

"Not another word." He looked to her teasingly, as he kept decidedly slow for her to go with him to the car park.

He pulled up outside Karen's place, helping her out at her side and waiting for her to right herself on the crutches. "How does it feel now?"

"Not as bad." She managed to get the house keys out with no problem. She tilted her head at him questioningly. "You want to come in for a bit?"

"Sure." He didn't see why not. "If you want any extra _help _with anything…"

She smiled to herself. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the young male – if only he knew what she _really_ wanted him for!  
>Of course, she wasn't going to get right in there and touch anything she <em>shouldn't<em>, oh no. She had to respect him. She _wanted _to.

What would've happened if she _didn't_? Well, he wouldn't have _enjoyed _the inappropriate contact, to say the least. He may even refuse to help her again, although why would he do that?

"Right then," Chris helped her to sit down on the sofa in her lounge, "if you feel ok to get yourself sorted…" He was rather surprised that _Jess _wasn't about. He figured that maybe she was in bed resting or she'd taken the little one out for some fresh air.

"Stay for a bit." Karen spoke up insistently, her eyes looking to him in a pleading sort of way. It was almost as though she didn't want him to go.

"…For what?" He wasn't exactly bothered about the time – he had _more _than enough to get back to the school as he was on lunch. "You want me for something else?"

She shook her head weakly. "I feel alone."

"Don't feel like that." He softly placed a hand on her shoulder. "Karen, please don't feel that way. Wherever Jess has gone, she'll come back. She would know better than to leave her own mum like this."

She swiftly placed her hand on top of his, caressing the dewy skin. Tempting, so, so tempting…

He tilted his head in mild confusion, not really understanding her feelings for him.  
>He could only put it down to fear. Clear-cut, absolute fear. After all, could he blame her for feeling that way? She was partially immobilised and was probably in a lot of pain!<p>

"You want me to get you to bed?"  
>He couldn't see the harm in that. He wasn't going to see anything he shouldn't, and it wasn't as though she was going to make it up the stairs by herself. And it was something that wasn't exactly forbidden between <em>friends<em>.  
><em>Was <em>it?

She nodded slowly.

"Ok then." Chris placed a hand around her wrist, carefully pulling her back up onto her crutches but not in a forceful way. He understood that it was still going to take time for her to adjust to weight bearing on them and that she didn't have the full use of her leg. "Let's get you to bed."

Karen felt warm all over as she felt the young male place a hand on her lower back as she slowly hobbled up the stairs. She wished that he did _more _than just hold her there, although she knew deep down that he was only doing it so she didn't fall back.

When she got to her room, she heavily dropped onto the bed and he took the crutches from her, propping them up against the nearest wall within her reach in case she wanted to use them again.

Taking hold of her legs, he lifted her uninjured one onto the bed and under the blankets and then slowly took care of the plastered-up one, careful not to put any strain on it.  
><em><br>That_was touch that almost took her breath away. What she wanted do more than anything at that point was grab hold of him, pull him into bed with her and do so many naughty things to him. But she decided to hold off for then, simply peering up into his soft blue eyes.

There was such meaning within them – meaning that she almost wasn't sure of. She placed a hand on his wrist, keeping him from leaving her. "Thank you ever so much."

"I-I just wanted to help you." Chris stated shyly. "If you want any other help with anything, and I mean _anything_…"

She smiled to herself as dark thoughts entered her mind.

"…Let me know."

She nodded thankfully. "I will."


	8. Chapter 8

Chris managed to get into the centre before rush hour _really_ hit.

Clara was already waiting for him at the place where he'd dropped her off that morning, and she had several carrier bags on her – more than he cared to _count_.

"Had no trouble finding places you wanted to go to then?" He assumed once she'd got in to the front passenger side of his car.

She shook her head steadily. "All sorted now."

"Good." He looked her over, realising that since she'd been with him, she hadn't even so much as taken a _shower_. That on top of the fact that she'd endured a night or two in the teeming rain beforehand. "You can always freshen up once we get back. I can give you a towel that you can have as your own and while you're doing that, I don't mind going out to get us something."

She peered at him carefully. "Something like what?"

He shrugged, smoothly pulling away from where he'd stopped off to collect her. "Whatever you feel like."

She hadn't even thought about eating. She didn't even have anything whilst she was in the centre.

"There are lots of takeaways nearby," he went on, "take your pick."

She smiled softly. "I don't really know what I feel like."

"Ok then," Chris stopped at a red light, "you up for a Chinese?"

Clara nodded coyly.

He playfully smirked. "Then that's decided."

Once they got back to his place, she dropped all her carriers into her room and saw him come in to give her a towel he hardly ever used.

"You can have this one." He offered.

She thankfully took it from him before quickly pulling his debit card out from her back trouser pocket. "Here." She handed it to him. "Thought you might want this back."

He took it from her, knowing that he was right to trust her. "You want me to get something spicy or…not so spicy?"

She shrugged. "I'm easily pleased."

"Ok," he seemed a little more relaxed with her, "I shouldn't be too long. I can go to the place just down the road from here."  
>And with that, he was gone.<p>

Chris _never_ felt so sure about the way things were going with Clara.  
>Everything just seemed to be falling into place – almost as though it was an incomplete jigsaw but with all the right pieces going in where they should. And there was <em>nothing<em> that spelt other than perfection as their relationship at that point in time.  
>Sure, there were going to be a few little issues and some unanswered questions that he was yet to answer and vice versa, but it was just perfect – <em>too <em>perfect.

He pulled up outside the takeaway place, and knowing that they accepted cards, decided to use his.

He didn't like the cashier's concerned expression. Maybe he put his PIN in wrong. He didn't think that he _did_, but on the off chance it could well have happened. After all, he was certainly _distracted _enough to have let it happen.

"Sorry, my love. There seems to be a problem with your card."

He swallowed hard. "What sort of problem exactly?" As far as _he_ was aware, Clara had been using it no problem – she'd been using it _non-stop_, or as good as, all day.  
>Maybe <em>that<em> was the problem.  
>Maybe she'd bled his account dry.<p>

"It doesn't say, but I'm not reading anything from it."

Shakily, he managed to fish out his credit card, once he was given back his other one. He _absolutely _begrudged using it as he knew he had to pay off whatever he spent, but if it meant having to use it to keep both of them alive, it was certainly the better option than going _without_. "O-ok, I'll use this one instead."

Clara felt _much_ better after taking a long, relaxing shower. She didn't realise how flat and lank her hair had gotten, and she was glad that she managed to go out and get something to sort that out.

She took in a very appetising scent once she opened the bathroom door, and she looked to see Chris sitting down yet in a bent over position. He looked as though he was in a _thoughtful _pose.  
>"You weren't gone long at all." She certainly felt <em>hungrier <em>after being near such a tempting aroma, and she came over to him, with the towel he gave to her covering her modesty.

He didn't even look round at her, preferring to keep his gaze firmly on the floor in front of him. "So you spent everything on my card then."

She was shocked at his tone of voice. He sounded almost _cheated_ – like she'd taken him for one big merry ride. "You wanted me to _use _it."

"I didn't mean for you to blow all my money." He looked to her than time, his gaze becoming sharper and angrier. "How _could _you? I needed some of that."

She cast her gaze away guiltily. "Well, you didn't exactly tell me how much of it I could spend in the first place."

"That's besides the point," he retorted, "_completely _besides the point. It's pretty obvious it gets used for other stuff."

Clara shrugged.

"Clara, I have standing orders that come out from it. The rent for this place…that comes out of it as well."

"I'm sorry."

Chris swiftly got up from where he was sitting, placing his hands on his hips.

"Really, I'm so sorry. I just…I guess I didn't think."

"No, I don't think you did either." He couldn't be angry with her for much longer.  
>It was just as well that nothing was due to come out from the card, but he used it for withdrawals. "It's not the end of the world. We can get by."<p>

"I've spent everything you had then."

"You haven't exactly done that." He noted softly. "I've still got the use of my credit card, and nothing else was due as of yet. I'll just have to pay everything off that I spend on my credit card, that's all, and that won't amount to very much."

"B-but your wages…what about that?" She was surprised at how well he took it. He was initially annoyed, but it was really the first blip in their relationship.

"That'll work out ok," he took her into an embrace, "they go into the debit account, but I get paid soon enough anyway. No major harm done."

Clara closed her eyes as she felt Chris stroke her down her back through the towel that was wrapped around her. "I didn't mean to do it…"

"I know you didn't, but you won't do it again 'cause I know there won't be a next time where you won't have anything to wear. I should've told you not to use it all I guess, but don't worry. It'll all get sorted, I promise."

She nodded dimly as she pulled herself away from him and he raked his fingertips through her damp hair.

"How do you feel now?" He was referring to her shower.

She smiled a little. "A lot better."

"I'm not surprised – after spending a night or two under a bus shelter." He found something _paternal _about stroking her through her wet hair. "Get yourself sorted, ok? I'll start dishing it all out once you've done that."

Once Clara had gotten herself sorted and they'd both eaten, they nestled up together on the sofa for some time. It was the first time they'd ever done anything particularly _intimate _together as a family.

She felt so relaxed being pressed up against Chris; she nestled her head against his broad chest, closing her eyes as he softly slid his fingertips through her shiny hair.

He was sure she was dozing off to his stroking, and he peered down at her, noticing she'd fallen asleep.  
>Smiling softly to himself, he scooped her up into his arms, feeling a little more relieved in the fact that she felt slightly heavier than before.<p>

Of course, it was going to take more than a takeaway or two to bulk her out, but at least she felt a healthier weight for her size and age. He shivered at how painfully thin and weak she seemed the first time he saw her.

She buried her nose into his t-shirt, liking his musky scent. It was something she deemed familiar to him, and she didn't want to move away from it.

He carried her to her room, laying her down on the bed and carefully covering her up in the blankets.  
>He didn't want to leave her, deciding to sit beside her and sweep a few stray wisps of shiny dark hair away from her face. He'd gotten used to seeing her sleep, but he felt closer and closer to her as the days went on.<br>He knew full well that she was at the age where she should be left on her own to rest, but she'd been so long without him and so it didn't feel right to do so.

Clara stirred from within the blankets, her eyelids fluttering intermittently but without lifting themselves. She'd been on the move all day, and so she was probably well and truly exhausted from it all.  
>She edged further into Chris's touch, not wanting it to stop. He was being so careful with her, and it was touch she'd never experienced from <em>anyone<em>, not even her own _mother_.

He twirled the longer strands around his index finger, allowing them to coil as he unwound them again. He couldn't begin to imagine how _awful _he felt at not being a part of her life so much earlier on, and it was surely going to be something he would forever hold against himself for.

"I wish I was there for you so much earlier on," he softly whispered, gently sliding a curled wisp between his thumb and index finger, "but just 'cause I wasn't, doesn't mean I love you any less."

Clara didn't even stir – just simply remained quiet and motionless. She'd probably sank into an even _deeper _sleep within that time.

"I _love_ you," he admitted slowly, feeling the unfamiliar words stick in his throat, "I really _love_ you and I don't wanna lose you like I did before."

He never thought he felt as close to her as he did right then, but at the same time, he'd never felt so close to anyone to start with. So many strange feelings were overtaking him, yet once he admitted how paternally close he felt to her, the strangeness faded away.

He swept a hand over her forehead, planting a sugar-soft kiss there. "Sweet dreams, my love. I love you."


	9. Chapter 9

The next day.  
>Karen let out a mumble that was somewhere between lethargy and weakness.<br>Feeling so stiff and tired, she managed to get out of bed in order to answer her door. She was surprised how quickly she adapted to using the crutches to hop down the stairs.  
>She opened the door, coming face to face with a <em>very <em>surprised looking Chris. She breathed faintly at the pleasant yet unexpected sight of him.

He frowned at realising that she'd answered the door by herself. "No one else about?"

She shook her head dimly. "All I've done since you've taken me back here is sleep." And that was true. She had lost track of all sense of time and what had been going on around her. It wasn't as though she didn't _care _about anything else, it was just sheer tiredness.

"Really?" He seemed more concerned. It was natural for her to not feel herself after being kept in a hospital overnight, but _that_ coupled with the fact that she'd had trouble _remembering_ what had gone on during the accident perturbed him somewhat.  
>"Can I come in for a bit?"<p>

Karen looked over at the time. Four-fifteen in the afternoon? She'd slept through an entire day? She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stepped aside to let him in, taking him through to her lounge once she closed the front door behind him.

Chris heavily sat down on the sofa next to her, taking in her extremely exhausted and weak form. It was concerning for him to see.  
>He didn't particularly want to interrogate her about the incident – that was probably the <em>worst<em> thing he could do at that point in time. After all, she was in no fit state to be subjected to any questions.  
>And he was <em>very<em> sure she hadn't eaten. There was absolutely no way she was going to be able to come back to work any time sooner if she wasn't _strong _enough.

She felt weak and shaky, and he knew full well it was from not being to able to eat anything. She _couldn't_– Jess spent practically most of the time looking after her little one, and Harry wasn't at the age to help with anything like that.

"How does your leg feel now?" He wanted to know, noticing it still in its original plaster cast.

She sat back, looking over at him. She certainly felt better that he was there. "It still aches, but I guess that's part of the healing process."

"It probably will ache for some time." He admitted. "Did they give you any painkillers before they discharged you?"

She nodded slowly. "I can't really take them though."

_That_ on top of the fact that she hadn't eaten was _not _what he wanted to hear. "Why not?"

Karen lowered an eyebrow at the young male's question. What _was _he, some part-time doctor? "I can't take them without food."

"Oh." Chris cast his gaze away. He was right to guess that she hadn't eaten.

"I've barely even managed to _eat_, because of how tired I feel."

"Karen, that really isn't good. You've got a broken leg. By not eating, you're not helping yourself to get better and it'll slow everything down." He explained.

"It isn't as though I haven't _wanted_ to eat…" She shrugged. "But with no one else here, what am I meant to do – do it all _myself_?"

"No," he knew she had him there, "but if you've had problems with that, you could've let me know. I know you don't have anyone else here with you and that your kids aren't disposed to look after you, but by not getting any other help it's slowing the healing process right down."

She shivered slightly.

"You want me to get you anything?" He offered freely. He did _not _want to leave her in the state she was in. "If you want me to go out…"

"I've got stuff here."

"Then let me sort something out for you." No beating about the bush with him at that point in time.  
>He felt lucky that he actually went round when he did, else in what state would he have found her a day or two's time? He wouldn't have liked to think, but he knew it wouldn't have been pleasant.<p>

Chris helped Karen up the stairs so she could go back to bed. He lifted her injured leg onto the bed and under the blankets, before telling her he would get on and sort something out for her.  
>She knew that he was only trying to help, and she felt lost at the fact that he wouldn't be able to do so on a more permanent basis. He was becoming so protective of her, and it was something she was <em>sure<em> he'd had _practice _in.

Once she'd eaten, he wanted her to take the painkilling tablets the hospital prescribed for her before they let her go.  
>"Now you can't exactly back out of taking them." He teased, before taking on a more sombre expression. "Once you take them, you'll start to feel much better."<p>

"What are you, my _babysitter_?" She asked him with a hint of sarcasm. She knew that he meant well and he was right to keep on at her to take the medication she was given.

"Might as well be." He felt better in the fact that he didn't have to head back to his place as soon as before.  
>Clara would be fine doing whatever she was doing – be it trying on what she'd bought the day before or maybe catching up on the rest of her sleep. She was still a bit tired herself, although he was happy that she'd managed to pretty much catch up on it all.<p>

"I shouldn't have to keep you here like this." She protested, although deep down not meaning it. "You've got to go home…"

"Karen," he smirked playfully, "I'm not in any rush to go home. My concern is with you and I'm not going anywhere till you start feeling a lot better."

"But that could take some time…"

"You've taken the medication they gave you – at least that's a start." He explained. "They're usually a higher dosage and more fast-acting, so it's fair to say you should start feeling better soon."

Chris spent all the time he was there watching over Karen. She'd fallen asleep within no time, and her house was just so _quiet_.  
>He checked the time with his watch, considering about going home. It wasn't getting late as such, but he had to get something for Clara and himself before his stomach decided to shut down for the night.<p>

Looking her over, he realised she was sweating slightly. The fact that she'd gone for so long without food didn't help and so to finally eat something had probably confused her body's normal processes.  
>He didn't want to leave her like that.<p>

Through her feverish torpor, Karen felt something cool place itself against her forehead. It was contact that took her breath away, and she wanted it to continue for as long as possible.  
>It remained there for some time before gradually fading away and then coming back again. Icy shocks ran along her flesh, giving her a pleasant tingly feeling.<p>

Chris kept the wet, cool cloth pressed against her, lessening the feverish chills that overtook her. He was relieved that her flushing had lightened and she wasn't sweating as heavily as before.

She didn't want to suddenly move while he was there. She knew exactly what he was doing to her, and so any form of movement might startle him and make him stop. She decided to keep the little game going for as long as she could. After all, what he was doing with her felt so good and if it meant keeping him there with her for _longer_…well, that was even better.

She almost gasped when two fingers softly grazed the top of her head to move a few stray blonde bangs away from her forehead. Although the touch was merely _accidental_, it sent hot flashes coursing their way through her, reactivating the feverish chills again. The contact between them, however unintentional and minor it was, was just…to _her_, inexplicable.

She sensed him leaning closer down against her, and what she _wouldn't _have given to let her eyes fly open and pull him down on top of her for their lips to meet.  
>Even the <em>thought <em>of it made the sweating that much worse and she knew she had to stop the naughty thoughts.

Chris kept the application going, knowing that it was doing _some _good, albeit in a very gradual way. He stopped once the feverish chills had slowed down, and moved her bangs back into position again once he felt happy enough to leave her. He rinsed the cloth out, squeezing the excess water back into the bowl he found lying about.

Karen relaxed at the interestingly soothing sounds of the water, knowing that he was close – _so_ temptingly close – to her. She knew that he was still keeping a close eye on her, and so for her to open her eyes at that point would end her fantasy.

She felt a small weight shift itself from her mattress, and she covertly parted her eyelids to see his slender figure disappear from the room.  
>She sighed at their closeness seconds ago, falling back into a deeper, more relaxed sleep.<p> 


	10. Chapter 10

Karen came round some time later that evening. Her eyelids fluttered open, finding herself comfortably wrapped up in amongst the bed's blankets.  
>A coolness lingered around her, soothing the remnants of the fever she had, and she thought for a short time that Chris was still there.<p>

She weakly sat up, surprised that she managed to find the strength to do so. She propped her back against the headboard, still going over what he did with her.

He'd been so _careful_ with her and the fact that he'd spent most of the afternoon with her – simply watching over her while she slept – made her think that there _was _definitely something else going on with him. After all, why spend the main part of an afternoon with someone who wasn't very well?

"Everything ok in here, mum?" Harry's voice came from the bedroom's door, and she peered up to see him standing there.

She nodded thankfully. "I'm fine, love. Absolutely fine."

"You sure?" His expression told her that everything with her didn't seem completely fine. "You don't want anything?"

"No, no." Karen smiled softly. "I just need to rest, that's all."

Chris got back to his place, finding Clara on her bed in her room. "Sorry if I'm a bit later back." He apologised.

She saw him standing at her doorway with a small carrier. "Queue at the takeaway place?" She teased.

"No, I had to see if my mate was any better." He explained. And that _was_ the truth. Karen was whom he considered a _mate_– they went out for drinks together and she'd come to him for advice on quite a few occasions.

"Oh, I see." She smirked. "Not a _lady_-mate, are they?"

He smirked back at her as if to say "very funny". "Hope you're hungry." He tilted his head to the small carrier he'd been holding.

"I am a fair bit." She admitted, feeling her stomach get that tiny bit emptier from being without anything, if not for the decidedly appetising scent not too far from her.

"Good job I _thought _of that." He made to disappear from the doorway so he could go away and sort that out.

She got up off her bed, following him out. She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind, taking him by surprise once he'd placed the carrier on the side so he could empty it.

"What's all this about then?" Chris wanted to know, although saying so in a playful way. He didn't _dislike _the hug Clara was giving him – more so the opposite. But it was contact he wasn't expecting.

"Just wanted to hug you." She nuzzled her cheek against his back, in between his shoulder blades. She took in that familiar musky scent on him, and it was something she found that she couldn't be that long without.

He smiled to himself, finding her embrace a tad bit restrictive. But, if she wanted to hold him like that, he didn't mind. Why would he refuse contact like that from his own _daughter_? And the takeout he got was going to stay hot for a little while…

He felt her hands press into his stomach, pulling him close into her from behind. He knew she'd lacked being able to express her emotions in such a way and he was more than happy to respect that.

"Dad," she started, unknowingly sending a warm fuzzy feeling to his chest at the labelling of such a term, "you do love me, right?"

He lowered an eyebrow, which she couldn't see from where she was. "You _know _I do." He turned round to face her, so that her hands moved round to his lower back. The closeness still remained between them. "I know that we haven't spent much time together, but that's changed now, hasn't it?"

"I've still got lots of things to tell you," Clara explained hesitantly, "and I don't know how to go about doing so."

"Hey," Chris smiled reassuringly, "we can talk after we've eaten, yeah? I've got to have something before it gets too late and my stomach won't like it. And I daresay _you've _eaten at all since I've been out…"

"I don't know how much I can tell you tonight," she admitted, "but at the same time I don't know for how much longer I can go without telling you."

"Then we can talk when you go to bed." He assured her. It became clear to him that what she so urgently wanted to talk to him about could possibly be something that had happened before they encountered each other. "I'll always have time to talk to you, Clara, I promise."

"It hasn't _been _that way since you took me here." She protested.

"No," he knew she had him there, "no, it hasn't, but that doesn't mean to say I didn't _wanna_ talk to you or for you to talk to me. There've been a few things that have gone on that I've had to deal with and they've had to come first. That's just the way it's all panned out. But now we've got _plenty _of time to talk. Does that sound ok to you?"

She nodded slowly.

"Good." He pulled himself away from her. "I think we should sort this out before it gets cold."

"_That_," Clara remarked, giving her empty plate to him, "was _nice_."

"Glad you liked it." He happily took it from her. "We can't live on these _all _the time if you're to stay here though." He put both plates on the side and went back over to her.

"Why not?"

"'Cause, young lady," Chris's bright blue eyes fixed onto her more strident ones, "it isn't good for you. Surely your mum told you that?"

She said nothing to his answer, choosing to cast her gaze onto the wall in front of them. She drew in a small sigh, as the unpleasant feelings overtook the more satiated ones from the takeout.

He peered over at her, sensing that he'd hit a nerve with her somewhere. He hoped that he didn't insult her, although how was _he_ to know? Their relationship together had been fairly smooth up till then and a hitch here and there was bound to crop up. No relationship was _perfect _as such.

Clara slowly got up, going into her room. He followed her, seeing her lying down on her stomach on the bed.

Not knowing what to say, Chris sat next to her and place a hand on her back. He rubbed her there softly, unsure of what else to do.

"My mum didn't really treat me all that well," she slowly explained, starting off the talk between them, "all we ever lived on was takeouts."

"That's not happening anymore." He reassured her. "I'll look after you."

She relaxed from the soothing tempo of his stroking. It was so slow and constant, and it was making her sleepy.  
>"She had a partner," she went on, "but he wasn't all that nice to me."<p>

He tilted his head in mild concern, deciding to let her continue in her own time. He didn't want to press her by asking extremely intrusive questions. They may not have been that relevant to her case anyway, but he never knew.

"He used to _hurt _me." Clara looked to him, her eyes almost softening from the tears shimmering behind them.

He felt a slight anger burn up inside of him. How _dare_ anyone do that to a _child_ – especially his _own_. "I would never, _ever _do anything like that to you." The stroking slowed somewhat.

"I know you wouldn't," she saw his eyebrows lower themselves in indignation – not towards _her_, but for the way she'd been treated in the past, "that's why I wanna stay with you."

"And you _can_." Chris reassured her, taking her into an embrace. "You can stay here for as long as you want."

She drew in a deep sigh when she wrapped her arms around his waist. He did the same, pulling her up against him. All she wanted was for him to hold her – keep her there till she felt comfortable enough to go to sleep. "I wanted to get away from there so, so much. That was why I left in the first place. That as well as the fact that I wanted to find you."

"Which you've done no problem." He smirked playfully, trying to lighten the dark atmosphere over them. "I'm guessing you would've gone back to staying under bus shelters."

Clara nuzzled her face in his t-shirt. "I don't know what I would've done if you didn't want me to stay. I thought maybe you wouldn't _love _me or wanna know me."

"Don't think that." He made her sit up and he cupped her face softly. "I _do_ love you, sweetheart. It took me a while to feel such emotions as I've never had to deal with a situation like this before, but…you're _mine_. How can I not _love _you?"

She made out such intense emotions within his vibrant blue orbs, and it was something she found astonishing. How anyone could clearly express their feelings with their eyes was quite incredible. That was why she felt so sure about trusting him.

Chris looked over at the time. "It's getting pretty late," he admitted, "so I think you should go to bed and get some sleep." He didn't want her to talk for _too_ long, as she'd end up facing exhaustion and _he_ would find himself in the same situation – and he had to _work_!

Clara sat up against her headboard as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I know it's not what you want and that you wanna talk some more, but I don't want you getting too tired." He went on. "We've got plenty more time to talk tomorrow."

She placed a hand on top of his, taking in the warmth and softness of his skin. "I love you."

"I love you too." He planted a sugar-soft kiss on her forehead. "Go to sleep now."


	11. Chapter 11

Three weeks had passed.  
>Chris was surprised at noticing Karen behind her desk Monday morning. He almost bolted from the room in sheer shock!<br>"Thought someone had broken in for a moment." He managed to catch his breath at the realisation that she'd come back.

"So now I'm an _intruder_?" She smirked, taking mild amusement in his little jump. That was _certainly_ one way to get his adrenaline going – and she didn't have to _do _anything!

"Well, you've been away for so long…" He came closer to her, standing in front of her desk in such a way that it drew her gaze directly to his flat stomach. "I was sort of getting used to being in charge."

"Well, you've been well and truly _deposed _now." She teased, emerging from behind her desk and startling him at the fact that she could pretty much walk without her crutches and there was hardly any trace of a limp coming from her.

"Wow," he breathed faintly, "I guess I don't _need _to ask how you're feeling."

She laughed a little at his incredulous comment. "Well, a few aches here and there, but a few sessions of physio will sort that out."

"Don't think you'll get an easy ride from those," Chris smirked playfully, "they _are_ quite intensive and you've got to _really _work at strengthening your leg to the way it was pre-accident."

"You've been so good to me," Karen stated, "and I don't know how I can ever _thank _you."

"You don't need to." He made to go, realising what the time was. "I don't give to receive. And we're _friends_, aren't we? You don't have to repay me for looking out for you."

She drew in a small sigh. If only they were _more _than that.

"If you want any help, you only have to ask." He added. "I haven't got any sets going on, but I'm more than happy to help out with anything you've got problems with."

"Oh, I see." Her voice sounded teasing but not flirty. "You just can't resist, can you?"

He gazed away coyly. "I guess not." He blushed in slight modesty, which she couldn't help but find adorable – especially when the minor pinkness reached his cheeks and he was trying like mad to stop it.

After work.  
>Chris came into the room, still seeing her work. "You know, for someone who's just gotten over a broken leg, you're not really doing yourself any favours."<p>

She peered up from what she was writing, considerably pleased at seeing him still in the building. "Would you like to explain to me _why _that may be?"

"For a start," Chris tilted his head towards the light switch, "you shouldn't be straining your eyes like that." He knew it'd turned into a pretty awful day as it had teemed it down and darkened the sky outside, but he wasn't sure why she had the main light on – and why the heck was it so _bright_?

Karen noted his comment. "My lamp's decided to stop working," she explained, "so the main light was the only other option."

"I'm surprised that sort of light hasn't _blinded_ you by now." He teased. "You must be close to getting a _migraine _with brightness like that."

She smiled a little at his joke.

"Also…" His bright blue eyes shimmered within the lustre. "You should start thinking about going home and recharging. Staying behind when you should be recovering will only slow it all down again."

"Then why are _you _still here?"

"'Cause I know _you_ would still be here." He made to go and fetch her a dimmer bulb.  
>He didn't want her to get a headache, especially when she still remembers very little about the incident she was in. He knew concussion could do <em>all<em> sorts to people, even _weeks _after being in an accident, and he would've hated anything to worsen it.

She didn't know what he was playing at, but she raised an eyebrow at seeing him come back with a dimmer bulb and a ladder. She felt quite _lucky_ at having to watch him. "That's _Rob's _job."

"Well Rob isn't here." Chris leant against the opened-out ladder. "So you've got _me_."  
>He got up to the full height on the ladder, prompting her to cast her gaze down his body from his strong shoulder blades, down the slender sides of his waist and to his nicely formed legs. Even looking at him from <em>behind<em> was just as nice as it was from the _front_.

She licked her lower lip at the thought of touching him while he was doing that. He was completely helpless. There was nowhere for him to go if she'd gone up behind him and put her hands on him.  
>Although the unexpected touch alone would probably have been enough for him to jump off the ladder and come to a very sorry state on the floor. The last thing she would've wanted was for him to get hurt.<p>

He dexterously twisted the brighter bulb out of its fitting, sliding the dimmer one in its place. "You should get on better with that one."

She could see his strong lower back muscles through the t-shirt.  
>Even though he was wearing <em>black<em>, just to see the firm flesh ripple alluringly under it was making her melt inside. It was movement that was begging her, _screaming _at her to do something about the way he was unknowingly teasing her.

Chris dismounted from the ladder, leaning against it. "I've done _my _bit of DIY for now."

She watched him fold it back up and slip the brighter bulb into his back pocket. She knew where he was going and she wanted to _follow _him.

He was surprised at how he wasn't even breaking a _sweat _at carrying such a heavy ladder. He propped it up against the wall in the storage cupboard, unaware of who happened to be behind him.

He jolted at seeing Karen within touching distance and he backtracked further into the cupboard.  
>It was quite a spacious unit; big enough to fit two, maybe three people, and it wasn't exactly dark as there was a light hanging from the ceiling.<p>

"I haven't thanked you." She noted huskily, taking in that scent – that temptingly musky scent that lingered over her when he was with her in her room that night.

"Y-you don't _have _to." He was slightly startled at her following him into the cupboard, but he wasn't put off at how close she was. The startled feeling rose when he backtracked up against the wall and she placed her hands on his hips.

She smiled at his response. "You're being so coy," she softly caressed him under his jaw, drawing the dewy flesh downwards against his neck, "and it's really very cute."

Chris wasn't sure what was going to happen, but he could safely say it could be something he might not _like_. Was she going to _hurt_ him? Highly unlikely. Was she going to touch him in an inappropriate way? Not _so _unlikely.

She pressed her body into his, her excitement increasing at their proximity.  
>Both bodies were in contact – her stomach pressing into his much flatter one. She continued the caressing under his jaw, prompting him to automatically tilt his head upwards so their lips could meet.<p>

Calmly and swiftly, she brought her lips against his and their flesh melted together. Warm surges coursed through her at the contact, and she licked his lower lip to get him to part his mouth and let her enter.

He wasn't playing along, disillusioning her somewhat. She thought she'd surprised him into submission, but he must've already been aware of what she was intending on doing with him.  
>He could only remain there and let her carry on. The way she was kissing him wasn't exactly sloppy, it was quite careful, but he couldn't reciprocate if he didn't <em>feel <em>like it.

Karen had to consider that the contact between them sufficed for then. She refrained from touching him anywhere else, knowing that he could well refuse it by pulling her hands away from him. To get him to automatically react to her was enough. After all, to _kiss _him felt just as nice as she thought.

Chris pulled himself away, reaching the stage where he was almost gasping out for air. He managed to get his breath back, his bright blue eyes wild with disbelief.

She licked her lower lip, taking in a very faint yet appetisingly sweet taste on it. He tasted as _good_ as he felt. It was getting too much for her and she was fast approaching a point where she wanted to _have _him!

A confused blush graced his cheeks, and he swallowed hard before thinking about what to say to her. "Why…?" His voice came out pale and faint.

She said nothing, but moved a little further away when he felt so shocked that he ended up losing his balance yet managed to correct himself by catching the wall.

"I-I don't understand…why do that to me?"

She knew that what she'd done was very, _very_ wrong. He didn't ask for that sort of contact, even though the temptation was just there…eating away at her like anything.  
>She knew that she'd quite badly hurt him, by wanting to make him do something he didn't really want to.<p>

"K-Karen…please answer me. Why did you _kiss _me?"

"I…" She saw a shocked expression forming on his face, and it became even _more_ shocked when she failed to answer him. He deserved to know why she'd forced herself on him, but telling him it was simply because he _tempted _her wasn't enough.

Chris realised that he wasn't going to get an answer from her, and rather than try to press her any further about why she almost shoved her tongue into his mouth, decided to simply leave their encounter as that. He swiftly exited from the storage cupboard without another word, knowing that he had to get back home.

Karen decided to pack up and go home. She'd half expected the young male to have come back to her room, but everything seemed pretty much in the same place when she'd left to follow him once he made to put the ladder back from where it came from.

What could she have _done_ about what she did? He was just _too tempting_. If he hadn't have offered to change her bulb for her then she may not have _kissed_ him.  
>So in a way, it was kind of <em>his <em>fault.

Yet she couldn't _help_ but want him. The urge for her to take him grew more and more, even more so when he did inadvertently seductive things like that.  
>The dark fabric of the t-shirt clung to his slender form, accentuating the firm flesh at either side of his waist. She could make out the defined curves of his shoulder blades as he dexterously twisted the replacement bulb into the outlet. It was all driving her crazy, the entire act becoming some form of a striptease – without the music, stripping and lights.<p>

It was certainly something she wouldn't have minded seeing _again_.


	12. Chapter 12

Clara heard the flat's front door open and she saw Chris wearily come in. "You look as though you've had a bad day, and it's only just _Monday_."

He said nothing but heavily sat down next to her on the sofa.

"Dad?" She inched up to him, placing a hand on his back. "You feeling ok?"

He found himself drift in and out of his perceptions, as if what had gone on between him and Karen was still on his mind. He couldn't understand how she could've _behaved_ in such a way towards him – her lips on his, her tongue forcefully demanding access to his deeper, sweeter depths.  
>For some reason it made him feel slightly ill.<p>

"You look so tired," Clara noted, her eyes immediately fixing themselves onto the very faint dark circles under his eyes, "you should go to bed and have an early night."

"Clara…" He weakly protested, knowing full well that she was right.

"You've done ever so well in looking after me." She caressed him down his back. "The least you could do is look after _yourself_."

Chris tiredly looked to her. "But you haven't _eaten_." He stated in a sleepy voice. "I don't want you to go _without_."

She wrapped her arms around him. "Please tell me what's made you so tired."

He shrugged. "Just working so hard. My job _does_take it out of me sometimes."

"When you've had a whole weekend to _recover_?" She quipped, pulling him closer against her. "I think you're telling me porkies."

He drew in a small sigh. "You wouldn't understand."

"Come on, how old am I? I can _take _it, you should know that."

He cast his gaze down to the floor. Boy, did he feel bad. He felt dirty, ashamed, helpless…everything anyone could've felt after being treated in such a way.

"It's woman trouble, isn't it?"

He peered at her incredulously. "How did you know?"

Clara smiled softly. "I just know." She kept the rubbing going. "So who is the lucky lady?"

Chris smirked to himself wryly. The only way he could've considered Karen as being _lucky_was when she took advantage of him – touching areas that were forbidden between friends. "Clara, I don't wanna talk about this."

"Someone you don't _like_, isn't it?"

"No," he shook his head faintly, "no, not at all, I _do_like her…but just not in that sort of way."

"It's not your mate that you've been going to see, is it?"

He couldn't help but find it unfortunate that she'd managed to twig who it was. The main thing to have come out of it however was that she didn't know her relationship to him. He closed his eyes and nodded.

"I thought it was a bit strange how you've got a female mate but nothing ever came out of it."

"I just wanted to _help _her, that was all." He explained. "But what she did to me back then tonight was just…"

Her eyes softened at the sound of his statement ending into a sob. She rubbed him down his back soothingly.

"I wish I never _helped _her in the first place."

She frowned in concern. "She did something to you?"

"Sh-she tried to _kiss _me."

Clara took hold of his hand, caressing the inside of his wrist with her thumb.

"And I feel so bad about it." Chris couldn't even stop the tears from springing from his eyes.

"I'm sure that when you think about it, it isn't so bad." She tried to reassure him. "Give it a few days and let the dust settle. You'll know when you feel ready."

He felt absolutely helpless and he didn't know why. It was almost as though he'd lost all feeling emotionally. "I can't exactly give it a few days either."

"Well why not?" She sat closer to him, trying to keep him as close to her as she could. He was breaking right in front of her – the one person who had taken her in and promised that he would look after her. It was unusual to see.

"I-I _work_ with her."

She nodded slowly. Sure, that was going to be a problem, but how hard could it be to avoid a mate he worked with for a day or two?

"A-and all this time she'd been _feeling_ that way towards me." He found her stroking soothing, almost to the point of sending him to sleep. "I didn't _ask_ for it, so why _do _it?"

She took on a more sombre expression. "So she's fancied you for some time, I take it?"

"I just…don't know what I can do to avoid her. She knows that I can't do that, I work so closely with her day in and day out." He let off a small shiver. "She can do anything to me, at any time. That's the scary thing about it all."

"Tell you what," Clara started, "why don't you have a lie down and I'll get you something?"

He looked to her tiredly. "Like what?" He didn't feel like anything particularly rich or heavy, as that'd probably keep him awake all night. He knew he had to eat; it was the only way he could keep going.

She smiled softly. "Something that'll make you feel better."

Chris felt tired and exhausted, and he was sure it was due to the shock that was wearing him down so much. He started to feel hot, and so had stripped down to his boxers before sliding into bed. Not only that, but the realisation of wearing the clothes when she'd done all that to him made him feel _unclean_.

She came in with a small bowl a few minutes later. "Most of what you had was quite _heavy_, so I quickly went out and got you some soup."

He let his eyelids drop in mild displeasure. Soup was something that was good at making a _cold _feel more bearable, and he knew full well that he had no cold.

Clara noticed his action. "Now don't be like that." She teasingly chided. "You'll soon feel better once you have something inside you, you'll see."

"You sound like my _mum_."

She smirked at his comment. "Well, I'm obviously doing a very good job at it, aren't I?"

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, slightly surprised at it already starting to gather at the corners of them and make them feel heavy.

"Now this," she pointed out, "is very good for you."

He felt like an invalid – how he could feel so awful was beyond him. He was just trying to change a _light bulb_. Karen must've been eyeing him up _then _while he was doing that.  
>He was confused as to why he wasn't aware of it – even sensing her gaze wandering down his body from behind. She had those thoughts within her at that time – dark, dirty, sexual thoughts. It made him break into a small chill.<p>

"You wanna maybe talk to someone?" Clara's voice drifted back within earshot.

He wasn't even aware of zoning out like that. Talking to someone wasn't a bad idea, but who could he have turned to? A shrink would've just wanted him to talk about his feelings, which wouldn't really help. And what Karen had done wasn't _abuse_, but it was certainly uncalled-for.  
>"I think I should leave it for now." He said after some time.<p>

She placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's not easy to admit to being made to do something you don't want to." She sounded very mature for her age, and he didn't even know where it was coming from. Maybe living with an abusive mother and her partner had toughened her up – although that sort of living would've made anyone toughen up the _wrong _way. Not so with her. "You don't deserve to be treated like that, so why are you letting her?"

"'Cause she's my _boss_." Chris retorted, prompting her to almost jump off the bed in shock.

She said nothing for some time, as he emptied the whole bowl and slid it onto the nightstand, which was within reach. She watched him nestle more comfortably in amongst the blankets, and she felt so guilty for making him talk when he clearly didn't want to.  
>"I'm sorry." She apologised eventually. "Dad, I am so sorry. I didn't realise how difficult this all is."<p>

He shook his head faintly. "You weren't to know, it's fine." He cast his gaze to the blankets, deciding to focus on them than Clara's concerned expression. "But now you know how difficult it's going to be tomorrow…and the day after that, and so on. She will make things worse. Or they could carry on with the same intensity."

She squeezed him reassuringly at his shoulder.

"I used to like my job, Clara," he continued, "but since she did those things to me, I've _hated _it."

"You can't dislike your job just 'cause of _her_." She stated, making him gaze up into her blue eyes, which had hardened again. "I can always come to work with you and make sure she won't touch you."

He shook his head. "That won't work."

She frowned at his answer.

"What if she found out you were staying with me?" He peered up at her. "She would take that the wrong way, I _know _she would."

"You can't think that." She inched closer to him on the bed. "You're worrying yourself stupid and it's not going to make you feel any better."

"She's the _head teacher_." He shivered slightly. "And what is she going to make of the fact that I've got a young girl staying at my flat? She's going to think you and I are…you know…at it."

She smiled softly. Well, she wouldn't have said no, but Chris was her _parent_ and there were probably plenty of women who would've gone for him. So he was a _teacher_…it all gelled into place for her.

_Not a bad job for a very attractive person, _she thought to herself. "Not if you tell her the real reason I'm staying with you."

"She won't believe me." He noted. "If I've refused to reciprocate any feelings towards her, is she likely to treat me the same way? I doubt very much that she will."

"Then smuggle me into your work."

"No." He sank further down into the blankets, already feeling the building warmth in his stomach start to send him to sleep. "I just can't allow that. I've worked so hard in getting you to stay and to make our relationship work. For someone to know us would wreck it all for us."

Clara couldn't understand why he was insistent on keeping their relationship pretty much under wraps. Did he work part-time as some sort of spy? Or maybe he was one of those who liked to keep themselves to themselves.

"Don't you see?" He leant up on his arm, reaching out and cupping her face softly. "I don't want anyone to know about us."

She wrapped her hand around his slender wrist, caressing the sleek contour of the joint.

"You're my little girl." He added, his bright blue eyes glowing softly in the dim light. "And it's better to keep work life and home life separate."

She nodded slowly. She knew that he was right about it. "You should get some sleep."

"But you haven't eaten anything." He noted.

She shrugged, smiling a little. "I'll be ok, I'll make it through the night. It's too late for me to eat and I'm not exactly _empty_. I'm just happy that _you _were able to eat. You needed it more than me."

It was _his_ turn to smile. "I'm glad I've got _you _for a daughter." He wrapped his free arm around her, pulling her into a hug and planting a sugar-soft kiss on her forehead.

She kissed him back, wrapping an arm around his waist and working her fingers into his spine in a relaxing sort of way. "I love you."

"Love you too."


	13. Chapter 13

Tuesday morning.  
>Chris woke up in amongst the blankets, finding Clara sitting by his bed.<p>

"Rise and shine." She smirked playfully. "You've had a nice long sleep."

He sat up and rubbed his eyes free from sleep. "I _feel _like it."

"Good." She squeezed him at his shoulder. "That's what I wanna hear from you. Now you just forget about what she did to you, ok?"

"It's not an easy thing to forget though…"

She teasingly placed a finger to his lips. "No more talking. You're going to go to work and you're not going to let her bother you."

"Can't I just call in sick?"

"No, you can't." She laughed a little. "You can do this. I know she's your boss, but try not to let that worry you."

He found himself frozen at Karen's door to her room. He didn't _dare_ open it, in case he went in and find her locking it so he couldn't get out. And then what? Maybe do _more _than what she did with him the previous night. He didn't even want to _imagine _what was going through her mind.

He slowly came into the room, finding her sitting behind her desk. He silently dropped the papers he'd been holding down in front of her, but she didn't so much as look up at him.

He tilted his head in slight confusion. Maybe _she_ was playing the silent game just as well as _he _was, although she was clearly not moving. Not even batting an eyelid.

Sliding up behind her, he realised that she'd kept her gaze on her laptop's screen. Something had clearly fazed her more than his silent treatment.  
>What he caught her reading was something that had <em>shocked <em>him.

She'd managed to pull up an article on the crash she was in. She wasn't a hundred per cent sure she was involved in that one or not, but she could remember the date and where it happened.

Chris decided to intervene. He was the only one who knew and understood what was happening with her. He made to close the window the article was in, only for Karen to pull it back up again. "You can't read this."

His reaction prompted her to sharply turn to him and make him jump back as she got out of her chair. "You can't tell me what I can and can't do, you're not my _carer_."

"I might as well be with the way you keep carrying on." He retorted, realising that the way she was behaving was more important than what had gone on the previous night. "You have to stop this. You're not helping to shift the concussion any quicker by doing things like this."

She pushed him out of the way, feeling an immense headache build up and cloud her thoughts.

"I know you want this to stop, but so do I." He continued. "That's why you should see a doctor – someone who can help you."

Karen felt trapped. She didn't want to see anyone, as she suspected them of taking her away. She sat on the floor against the wall, feeling so drained and exhausted that she could no longer move.

Chris found himself in a difficult position. He couldn't leave her like that, there was just no way.  
>He didn't <em>dislike <em>her but he didn't welcome what she did to him. For that reason he felt he had a responsibility to stay with her. But at the same time, what could _he_ possibly do to make any of it better?

He stood not too far away from her, watching her start to break in front of him. That was _incredibly _distressing – someone equally as independent as him losing control just like that.

"I'm not going to get any better."

"Don't say that." He sat down next to her and took her into an embrace. "You _will_ get better, it'll take a lot of time." It wasn't such a bad feeling and it was an action that to him didn't feel _awkward_.

She buried her nose in his t-shirt, finding the familiarly musky scent alleviate her a little. She felt his arms wrap around her waist, holding them both together.  
>Tears begun to spring from her eyes and to then roll down her cheeks, but he was already onto that, gently brushing them away with an index finger and grazing the soft skin at her cheek in the process.<p>

"Do you want me to stay with you for a bit?" Chris offered eventually. He could tell she needed more _comfort_ than to do anything particularly _immoral_, and he felt particularly safe at suggesting he stayed with her.

Karen nodded slowly. "If that's ok with you…"

"It's fine with me." He reassured her, rubbing her down her back a few times. "I don't mind staying with you for a few minutes."

After work, they both went back to her place, and she took her place on the sofa in the lounge whilst he stood inside the room's doorway.

"You don't have to be here." She weakly noted, unable to ignore an air of insecurity lingering around the young male.

"No, I _wanna _be here." He replied softly. "You're not well and I'm the only one who really understands what's making you feel so bad."

She smirked to herself. "Even after what I _did _to you the previous night, I'm surprised that you've still wanted to help."

Chris knew that the reason he was staying with her was _not_ related to the contact between them that time. He decided to say nothing – after all, she was possibly behaving irrationally.  
>The previous night's incident could well be <em>proof<em> of that, and for all he knew it could happen again.

"How about if I get us a drink?" He figured a warm drink could make her feel better. What Clara did that night helped with _him_, so it could well work for her.

Karen nodded slowly, prompting him to disappear from the lounge. She placed a hand against her forehead, feeling the headache start to cloud her thoughts again. And it was a _killer_ of a headache.

He came back with two cups and he gave one to her.

"You managed to find everything ok then?" She assumed, thankfully taking her cup from him.

"Yeah, it was no problem." He raised an eyebrow at seeing her wince from the pain at her forehead. And she was someone who _rarely _displayed pain.

"Headache." She explained, as it began to fade.

"You seem to be getting them more often." Chris noted softly.

Karen shook her head. "A dose or two of aspirin will sort that out."

"Not in the short term, it won't." He leant further forward on the chair he was on. "What if it's a warning sign?"

"For simply not being able to remember anything?"

"You seemed to remember the date and location of the accident you were in." He pointed out. "You haven't exactly _forgotten _what had happened, you're just blocking it all out. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't see a doctor."

"What _is _it about you wanting me to see a doctor?" She lowered an eyebrow at him. She didn't know why she was talking to him like that. She knew he was only trying to help her, but she didn't want him to keep on at her.

"'Cause they'll know how to _treat _you." He replied, not really caring if she suddenly felt hostile towards him. "Karen, you can't carry on like this and not get help for it. It's disrupting your work life."

"_How _is it?"

He cast his gaze away. Did he _really _have to go into the full detail of what had been going on with her? He decided not to. He knew the answer to her question and so did she. "My point is that you should see someone. They wouldn't think of admitting you 'cause you're not putting yourself or anyone else at risk. What you've got is more post-traumatic."

Karen drew in a small sigh.

"I know it's something you don't wanna do, but by not having this the headaches will carry on, get worse and you could probably end up sicker." Chris sat closer to her.

"I know you don't want to talk about last night…" She knew that straightaway as he cast his gaze down to the floor. "But I feel I need to explain myself."

"You don't need to." He noted quietly. "You're sick, that's all. What you've got is making you behave irrationally and it's ok 'cause I understand."

"No, you _don't _understand." She retorted, prompting him to jump in his place. "And it isn't making me behave irrationally."

"Then how do you explain what went on that night?" He demanded to know. "And don't say it's 'cause you _feel_ anything for me."

"But I _do_, Chris."

That was something he wasn't expecting to hear. So what went on in the storage cupboard _wasn't _something that he deemed from her as spontaneous or irrational.  
>Actually, he <em>did<em> still think what she did was irrational. He didn't like her in the same way. He just couldn't _do_ that.  
>So why did <em>she<em> feel so strongly for him?

"Please, I…really _want_ you." Karen admitted, her voice beset with desire. "I've wanted you for so long, please let me have you."

Chris raised an eyebrow at her revelation, not really knowing how to react to it. Should he have declared _his_ feelings for her – feelings that he knew he didn't _have_?  
>Or <em>did <em>he?  
>"K-Karen…" He started faintly. "You cannot love me. You just can't. It would never work and you know that."<p>

"No one would have to know." She placed a hand on his thigh, yet he didn't shrink away from the touch. "I know what I did that night really hurt you, but I didn't mean to."

He swallowed hard, not knowing if he should at least touch her back. Dare he _try_ something that he never thought of trying before?

"I think I love you, Chris." She added loosely. "You've done so much for me, and whatever you construed my behaviour as last night, I didn't mean anything hurtful to have come out of it."

"S-so you just wanted to _kiss_ me, was that it?" He tilted his head in mild confusion. He was _astounded_ to hear what was coming from her and for once he didn't want her to think rationally as it was actually _scaring _him.

"I know you're still hurting from last night, so I want to make it all better."

"It isn't that I don't _like_ you, though." He noted. "'Cause I _do_ like you – very much. But just not in that way."

"You're not being entirely truthful with me." Karen pointed out. "You _do_ like me, and I _know _you do."

Chris drew in a small sigh. "So what if I do?" He shrugged. "It doesn't make it any better. We _work_ together. People will _suspect _something's going on between us. Those sorts of things…have they not even crossed your mind before you tried it on with me last night?"

"We can keep it quiet between us, surely." She smiled flirtatiously, tracing the outline of his jaw with an index finger.

"I don't know…" He weakly protested, slowly giving in to her teasing actions.  
>What she was doing with him felt so good, drawing him further closer to her. Were they even <em>alone<em> together? If they _were_, then maybe he would've approved of her touching him the way she was!

She could tell she was managing to break his defences down. Just by taking in his posture and his body language gave her more reason to continue the contact.

His bright blue orbs sparkled unevenly, in a mixture of shock and confusion.  
>They kept their gaze on each other, trying to work each other's feelings out.<br>He swiftly closed his eyes and leant into her, pressing his lips to hers.

Pleasantly surprised but even so _enjoying _it, she drifted a hand to the back of his head, caressing the shiny dark hair and prompting a submissive whimper from him.

He moved his body against hers, the need to be touched more increasing. Their lips oscillated, and they alternated between sucking and lightly biting on each other before probing deeper.

She plunged her tongue into the young male's mouth, eliciting a pleasured sound from him. It amused her to hear him utter such cute little noises, but she grew excited at the realisation that he accepted her to enter him. The probing continued and she grazed her tongue against his, sending waves of excitement coursing through his body.

"I think we should take this somewhere else." She gasped out after they withdrew.

He nodded shakily. "Y-you know where?"

She nodded, smiling naughtily. "I think _you_ know as well."


	14. Chapter 14

The next morning.  
>Karen awoke, finding the sun's rays spilt in through the windows and flooded the bed that her and Chris were sleeping in together.<br>She felt so warm and revitalized, and she was sure that the lovemaking helped her more than she thought.  
>And she <em>never <em>felt surer about continuing her relationship with him.

She peered over to the other side of her bed, noticing that the young male was still asleep. He was on his side facing her, with his arm around her waist.

The sunlight had bathed his fair skin in an alluring shimmer, defining the perfect contours of his broad chest when he breathed in deeply and back out again.

She smiled softly at how peaceful he was, and she gently raked her fingertips through his dark bangs, watching them catch the sun's sparkle. Everything about him was just…_perfect_. She couldn't put it any other way.

Chris stirred under the blankets, and his eyelids softly fluttered open to reveal his bright blue eyes. "Morning." He settled more closely against her, seemingly still comfortable with what they both did the previous night.

"Morning." Karen gently cupped his face, caressing the dewy flesh. He looked so tempting in the morning light and it was making her want to do naughty things with him again.

"How do you feel?"

She nodded softly. "So much better."

"I hope you're not putting it down to what we _did_ last night." He leant up on his arm, leaning more over her and pressing his lips to hers. He was sure a wave of excitement shot down his spine at the contact. He knew _then_ that what they had was no one-night stand. He _did_ really and truly _love _her.

"Well, no," she placed a hand on his arm, "but it _was _nice."

He flipped over onto his back, trying to ignore the thoughts in his head at getting up. He didn't _want _to get up. If he had a choice at either staying in bed or having to go to work, he'd rather go for the former.

"I hope it was nice for _you_…" She teasingly traced the outside of his navel with an index finger, prompting him to gasp softly. "I'll take that as a yes." She remembered that being a sensitive area from their lovemaking.

"I don't wanna get up." Chris sleepily protested, his expression becoming sulky yet in a cute way. "I wanna stay in bed with you."

"Mmm…and do _what_ exactly?" Karen wanted to know as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his body.

"Oh. Well, that'd be telling, wouldn't it?" He gave her a soft kiss on the lips, before softly pulling away.  
>He'd completely forgotten about <em>Clara<em>, suddenly worrying that she mightn't have been able to look after herself with him gone for one night. Although she was at an age where it shouldn't be considered a problem.

She noticed he came over a little preoccupied, and she softly squeezed him at a shoulder to get him to snap to. "Not falling asleep, are you?"

He managed to snap to that time. "Me? No. I'm wide awake."

She laughed a little. "You didn't seem like it a few seconds ago."

He thought of something else. Should he even _admit_ to Karen what had been going on?  
>He still wanted to stick to his promise of keeping his and Clara's relationship together <em>private<em>. It wasn't as though he didn't trust her, but she still might've construed their relationship as _sexual_, when in actual fact it was familial. "I guess we should get up now."

She was thankful that at that time, there was no one about. Harry would've already made his way to school and Jess was more likely than not in bed. "If you're worried about any of the kids seeing you, you shouldn't have to. There'll be no one about by the time we decide to go."

"Maybe I'm a _little_ tired." He fibbed, darting his gaze away the moment he said it.  
>He <em>hated<em> fibbing – mainly due to the fact that he was so _bad _at it and gave off subtle signals to the person he was fibbing to that he wasn't telling the truth.

"Well, I hope you're not going to blame that on the _sex _we had last night." She teased.

After work.  
>Chris went straight back to his place, finding Clara in her room and lying on her front on her bed. He stood in the spare room's doorway, immediately knowing that she wasn't entirely happy with him.<p>

And who could _blame_ the girl? She'd been waiting and possibly been worrying herself sick as to where he'd gotten. And he'd made no mention of where he was going in the first place.

He quietly sat next to her on her bed, placing a hand on her back and rubbing her there softly. He knew that however annoyed she was at him, he still wanted them both to maintain a good relationship together as they _had_.

"You've decided to come back then." Her voice came out muffled from her lying position.

He drew in a small sigh. "I'm sorry. I should've told you I wasn't going to be back, but it was all unplanned."

"Like _me_."

He frowned slightly at her answer. He knew she must've felt unbelievably hard done by, by the fact he didn't come home as he usually would, and he could only put her answer down as simply one of bitterness. "There was absolutely no way I could've told you I wasn't coming back."

Clara sat up, looking to him in a confused way. "Why, where exactly did you go?"

"Does it matter? I'm back now."

"You had gone and seen…_her_." Her sentence came out shocked and faint. "You said you didn't _like_ her."

"I never said I didn't _like_ her, I said I didn't like her _in that way_."

"So why _do_ it with her?" She cried out. "If you're not being honest with your feelings for her, then maybe you're not being honest with your feelings for _me_." She got up off the bed.

"Now that isn't true." Chris got up off the bed also. "I just…I don't know. Her feelings were all over the place, and I'm guessing mine still were after what she did that other night. But it's all sorted now, and we know we both feel quite deeply for each other."

"You can't switch your feelings on and off like a switch." She protested.

He placed his hands on his hips. "Well, I didn't know what to feel for you when _we_first encountered each other." He noticed her shocked expression. "I thought you were making it all up."

Clara felt his answer hit her and almost blow her back. She'd never expected him to think such thoughts and how he could think those things shocked her all the more. "So in a way you were judging me the whole time I was staying with you?"

"Up to a point." He cast his gaze to the floor. "But I know you're not making it up and that you never were."

She shook her head dimly. "The fact still remains that you didn't _trust_ me." She lifted her bag up off the floor and onto the bed. "That means that I can't trust _you_ anymore."

"Clara, don't say that." He came closer to her. "I've had so many problems with girls your age. How could I not think you may have wanted to…you know…try other stuff with me?"

She quirked an odd smile. "Don't flatter yourself."

"And I can't let you go," he went over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder, "not now. Not when I've tried so hard to get you to stay in the first place."

"I know that you love me." Clara peered into his soft blue eyes. "But it's fair to say that you didn't w_ant_ me."

"Not to start with, not when I was at the age I was." Chris admitted. "Just 'cause you weren't planned, doesn't mean to say I don't love you now."

She got her stuff together, sharply zipping her bag up.

"Clara, please don't go." He continued, squeezing her softly at her shoulder. "I don't want you going back out onto the streets."

She noticed his eyes had softened intensely, almost to the point of liquefying. There was so much perceptible feeling going on within them, and she knew that he was right.

"I know you might not think much of my relationship with Karen, but it isn't for what you think. I _do _love her." He added. "I don't want anyone else to know about it, but I want you to accept it."

She nodded slowly. "Ok."

He felt a wave of relief crash over him. "Ok, good." He drew in a small yet reassured sigh. "Please don't ever threaten to leave again. You _live _here now."


	15. Chapter 15

Later that night.  
>Chris wanted to alleviate the tension between him and Clara after their row earlier on when he got back from work.<br>They shared a large takeout between themselves and they settled down and watched a few films whilst huddled up against each other on the sofa, until she felt so tired that she fell asleep on him.

He peered down at her as he became aware of how heavy she'd suddenly gotten, and he carefully folded a loose dark strand of hair behind her ear. He felt warm at her arm slackly wrapped around his waist, hugging them close together, and he knew that he had to get her to bed. He lifted her into his arms and laid her down onto her bed.

Clara's eyelids fluttered a few times as Chris made to cover her up with the blankets. She stirred awake and hazily peered up at him. "What happened?"

"You dropped off." He smirked playfully.

"Oh." She sounded crestfallen. "Did I miss much of the film?"

"No," his bright blue eyes fixed onto hers softly, "it wasn't far off from ending, so I shouldn't worry."

"I'm sorry."

He raised an eyebrow at her apology, and he took his place next to her on the bed. "What are you sorry about, sweetheart?" He tenderly preened another few wayward strands of hair with an index finger.

"For what I said earlier." She placed a hand on his other hand, which had placed itself on the bed. "I didn't mean what I said, but…"

"It's ok now." He kept the preening at her hair going. "I know you didn't mean it. You're just going through a lot of emotions still, that's all."

She nodded slowly, knowing that there was something she'd been meaning to tell him for some time. "I get bad dreams sometimes."

Chris found nothing unusual to have come out of what she just said. "Well that's pretty much normal. Everyone gets bad dreams at any age."

"Not the ones _I _get."

He frowned in slight concern, sitting closer to her and then moved the touch from the slight wave in her hair that he'd created, to her cheek. "For how long have you been getting them?"

Clara shrugged dimly. "Probably since staying here with you." She watched his expression become more worried. "And they're always of the same thing. Over and over again…"

"It won't happen again. I'm here for you now, remember?"

"It's like a movie that won't stop playing. As if it's stuck on replay…why won't it go away, dad?"

"Ssh…it's ok, I can make this better for you. It's ok."

She shakily sat up, tears shimmering in her eyes.

Chris took her into an embrace, wrapping his arms around her and rubbing her down her back. He didn't know what else to do to get her to relax.  
>He laid her back down in bed, softly rearranging her shiny dark hair so it scattered nicely over the pillow.<br>"I love you," he planted a soft kiss on the top of her head, "and no one is going to hurt you anymore."

She swiftly placed her hand on his, pulling him back to her. "I don't want them to come back."

"They wont," he covered her up in the blankets, "not when I'm here." He cupped her face and skimmed his thumb over her cheekbone.

Clara felt sleepy from how affectionate and tender he was being with her. She'd never had anyone feel for her the way _he_ did and she found it _surreal_. She felt lucky that he was the dad she never knew she had.

He made to leave her, peering back over at her as she lay quite comfortably in amongst the thick blankets. "You want me to leave the light on?" He only switched on her bedside lamp, as he wanted to let her relax as much as he could, but if she needed to sleep, it was better for her if the room was kept dark.

She nodded hazily. "Love you, dad."

"Love you too." His bright blue orbs sparkled reassuringly. "Close your eyes and go to sleep now."

Chris found it impossible to sleep.  
>What Clara had said to him worried him somewhat.<br>If she had such bad dreams since living with him, why not tell him _sooner_?  
>Unless maybe she thought that as soon as he took her in and looked after her as well as he <em>had <em>done, they would somehow go away. After all, that was a realistic assumption to make.

"_They're always of the same thing_."

He frowned a little at that. If she'd been dreaming of the same thing, in the literal sense, that possibly meant she was suffering from some form of _flashback_.

A wave of exhaustion came over him. First of all Karen had been affected by concussion, which she was _still_ trying to recover from, and secondly _Clara_ – his own _daughter_ – had problems sleeping.

He was pulled out of his thought process when he became aware of a small disturbance from her room.  
>It was just as well that he hadn't yet gone to bed himself.<br>He leant against her doorway, noticing that the blankets were thrashing about quite wildly.  
>It was something he couldn't ignore, especially when he heard a few dim protests come from underneath the bedclothes.<p>

"I-I won't do it. I won't…" She sounded as though she was stuck in some sort of dream. She twisted her body about into quite uncomfortable positions, almost as if she was dreaming.

_Dreaming_…

That was it.  
>Chris came into the room, and positioned himself next to her on top of the bed. He pulled the blankets away from her and placed his hands around her wrists, as the struggling continued.<p>

Clara frowned instinctively at the restrictive contact, and tried to pull herself free from his grip. Her panic only set in all the more when she found that he wasn't going to let her go. The struggling grew more frantic. "I don't wanna do it…leave me alone."

He didn't know for how long it could last. She wasn't _overly_ tired to start with, so it could well have gone on into the early hours of the morning.  
>Not only that, but he was worried about her trying anything <em>else <em>to get him to let go.

The way she was reacting to the dream, particularly a _flashback_ if that was what it was, was normal. She could be re-enacting the order in which the whole event happened, or she was behaving in the way she _would've _done so at the time. Either way, it wasn't good if she ended up _hurting _him.

Maybe some gentle coaxing on _his_ part would get her to relax back to sleep, but he decided to wait till her struggling had lessened.  
>That wouldn't take long as it was bound to tire her out, and soon enough she lay, heavily panting, in amongst the pulled away blankets.<p>

"Clara…it's ok now." He didn't know much about night terrors or flashbacks that were experienced during sleep, so he had no idea if she could even _hear_ him.  
>However, she might respond through <em>touch<em>. She certainly responded when he kept her down against the bed.

Clara shivered involuntarily when the young male softly swept a hand over her forehead. The dream itself wasn't particularly pleasant, and so it was normal for her to not accept it at first.  
>"Don't touch me," was her response.<p>

"It's ok," Chris caressed her under her jaw with his index finger, "I'm not going to hurt you."

She twisted about uncomfortably as she grew more accustomed to the dreamily unknown touch. She relaxed as he took her into his arms and held her close to his body. Just to get her to feel his warmth was a _foolproof _way to get her to go back to sleep.  
>She breathed heavily against him when he wrapped his arms around her. She was still trying to fight the unfamiliar contact, but it was helping her.<p>

"Good girl," he laid her back down, softly twirling the dark wavy strands reassuringly, "sweet dreams now."

Clara elicited a blissfully relaxed sigh, nestling into a more relaxed position onto her back when he carefully pulled the blankets over her and pressed his lips to her forehead.

Chris stood next to the nightstand, observing her sleeping form in the softly dim light. He felt happy to leave her to rest, placing his hand on the lamp's switch and flooding the room in darkness before closing the door.

The next morning.  
>He got up, surprised to find that he felt as revitalised as he did, even after going to bed much later the previous night.<br>He got himself dressed, going straight to Clara's room and seeing her still deeply asleep in amongst the blankets.  
>He smiled softly at her peaceful appearance, leaning against the room's doorway. He felt so relieved that she'd gotten back to sleep.<p>

She mumbled drowsily when he swept a hand over her forehead.

"Sleep well, my angel." He whispered softly, kissing her there after he moved a few stray dark strands from her face. "I love you."


	16. Chapter 16

Chris went to Karen's room the moment he got into work that day.  
>He opened the door, breezily going in as he did so.<p>

"Wow," she remarked breathlessly, "someone got out of bed the right side last night."

He laughed a little. "Well, I wouldn't say _that _exactly." He sidled up to her desk, his bright blue eyes sparkling vivaciously.

"What do I owe this pleasure?" She asked flirtatiously, enjoying the seductive glimmer of the blue orbs. "Not asking me for a _quickie _before you start, are you?"

He coyly looked away. "No," his voice came over playful and shy, "but I _am _going to ask you something."

"Oh?" She smiled naughtily, leaning over her desk. "Do enlighten me."

"Well, I was thinking…as it's such a nice day outside and if it continues to hold up till the time work's over, we could perhaps have a little 'together time'."

Her smile grew a little more – probably from the mere thought of doing such naughty things to him. Well, who was going to _stop _them?

"And don't worry," Chris added, winking, "I'm not even thinking of coming empty-handed."

"I should hope not." Karen remarked. "Although it's not really a special occasion as such, is it?"

"Do we _need _to have a reason to spend some time together?" He stated, standing in such a way that it drew her gaze to his flat stomach. "We haven't really done anything quite like that for some time – not since before the accident. At least let that be a special occasion by itself."

She nodded, smiling softly. "If you insist."

He smirked from her teasing remark. "Well in that case then," he felt her admiring gaze on his body, "I shall see you after work."

"Chris, wait." Her voice stopped him from leaving the room.

He peered over at her as he kept his hand on the door's latch. He raised an eyebrow in confusion, unsure of what it was she wanted him for.

She emerged from behind her desk, sliding up to him, as he remained frozen by the door. "I've got something to give you." She knew he hadn't unlocked the door, so she felt safe enough to move a hand to his, prising it off the latch. She moved both of her hands to his hips, prompting him to move up against the door.

Chris looked to Karen with a confused look in his eyes. He didn't think for one minute that he wouldn't _enjoy _what she was going to do with him, quite the opposite. But he was inwardly worried about doing anything particularly naughty with her, as time wasn't waiting for them.

"And I think it's something you might _like_." She huskily added, caressing the underside of his jaw with an index finger in a teasing motion. The touch prompted a small, quiet gasp from him. "I think you like it already, and I haven't even _started_ yet."

He looked to her hazily, his eyes misted over with mild pleasure. It was a tempting sight all on its own, especially when he was panting a little as her touch glided down along the front of his neck, threatening to loosen his tie and unbutton the top part of his shirt. "Mmm…more."

She smiled in amusement to herself at his helpless pleading. "Well, if more is what you want," she quickly removed his tie and undid the first three buttons to his shirt, "more is what you'll _get_."

Within fifteen minutes, the two of them lay, wrapped around each other, on the room's floor.  
>"Mmm…" Karen remarked, snuggling up to Chris's equally warm body. "That felt <em>incredible<em>."

His hips were still jolting from leftover excitement, and he peered down at her from his lying-down position on top of her.  
>His cheeks had flushed a pretty pink colour, which deepened a little when she pressed a hand into his lower back, pushing him back down into her so he could feel her residual desire hugging and squeezing him.<p>

"Was it good for you?" She cupped his face, caressing the soft flesh as she looked up at him.

"I-it was so, _so _nice…" His voice tailed off from pleasure, and although it was something he wasn't expecting to have so soon, it still felt good.

She slid an index finger down the length of his spine, prompting him to purr contentedly. "Well, I guess I'd better let you go."

After work.  
>The sun was still out in all its glory, its rays shimmering over the newly-cut grass as Chris and Karen wandered along it, holding hands.<p>

"So where would you like to sit, my lady?" He asked her, his soft bright blues sparkling merrily.

She gasped in incredulity at the beauty of them. "Anywhere." She managed to say after getting her breath back.

"Oh, come on. Live a little." He winked playfully. "There's _loads _of space about. We can always go for somewhere out of the shade so we can enjoy the sunshine. We don't see or get enough of it, after all."

They settled on a sun-drenched area near enough in the middle of the field.  
>There were still plenty of people about, and they both guessed that they'd possibly come out of work the same time as them to enjoy the unusual sunshine while it lasted.<p>

"And now," he quipped after taking his jacket off, fishing for something in his side pocket and brandishing a bottle opener after he'd done so, "what we came for."

She handed him the bottle of white, and he effortlessly prised the cap off the top of it.  
>She could make out the defined muscles in his arm, especially his bicep, as he levered the cap all the way off. There wasn't an <em>overbearing<em> amount of flesh, but it was still admiring to see.  
>She would've reached out and placed a hand on him to feel its firmness, but she knew it'd put him off or startle him somewhat. She decided not to bother and felt good enough to watch the tempting display.<p>

"Ladies first." Chris winked playfully as he poured the sparkling wine into her waiting glass.

Karen surveyed the sparkle in his eyes. She was sure that some of the fizz coming from inside her glass caught the lighter, icier blues within them. It was infuriatingly tempting to inch closer to him, get him to drop the bottle, push him down onto the grass on his back and smother him with kisses.

He noticed her tempted gaze out of the top corner of his eye as he poured his own out. "Drink first," he taunted, "naughty girl."

She pouted. "Do I _have _to?"

He swallowed hard as she shot a hand down on top of his that was resting flat against the soft grass.

She allowed her hand to trail upwards, caressing the soft dewy flesh of his arm that was uncovered by his shirt. She was even _more _thrilled by the fact that he was wearing short sleeves.  
>"I want to have it out right now." She noted huskily, inching her body almost against his.<p>

Chris would've protested by saying that she should at least wait, but it was so hard to do so when he felt her hands on the sides of his waist and start to anchor him down against the ground.

"Because you see, Mr Mead," she flirtatiously started, dexterously undoing the first four buttons on his shirt and tracing the middle of his sternum with her index finger, "you're turning out to be so more tempting and tastier than the wine, that I might have to have _you _instead."

He shivered with excitement under her touch, and his eyes iced over with pleasure. It didn't matter _where _she touched him, as he was becoming so sensitive it was making his whole body tingle.

"Oh, so naughty…" Karen teased, continuing the touch, "so very naughty."

"Mmm…"

She pushed him down onto the dry warm ground, sliding herself on top of him and pressing her lips down on top of his. A fruity, sweetly citrus taste hit her tongue as she lapped it along his lower lip tauntingly. That was obviously from what he'd drunk from his glass, which was by that time lying intact in amongst the grass with a small river of wine spilling from it. That was almost as pretty as the young male she was lying on top of.

He squirmed about under her when her arm wrapped itself around the back of his waist. He closed his eyes and whimpered submissively as their lips connected again and her hand placed itself against his flat stomach. The noises grew as he felt her thumb caress him over his navel through his shirt.

"Something you _like_, is it?" Karen taunted, hearing his answer come out as a soft gasp. She noticed he moved his legs apart, placing them either side of her in an intimate gesture. She was surprised that he wanted it just as much as _she _did! If that were the case, well…she didn't want to disappoint him.

Chris squirmed a little more as her hands moved up his legs, finding that to his relief she'd spared the incredibly sensitive spot between them. They stopped over his hips, moving her thumbs over the crests of them and managing to draw the soft flesh upward through the trouser fabric. That action caught him out, drawing out a submissive yelp from him.

She was mildly amused at his adorable yet animalistic reaction, but had to stop when he placed his hands on top of hers.

"We can't." He panted in excitement. "Public place and all that."

She nodded slowly. She knew he was right, but the two of them were just so close and sexually charged.

"I do _want _it, believe me when I say that," he added after sitting up when she dismounted him, "but not when other people could see us."

"So you're not into public display then?" She assumed.

"No! No, I am…but not when it comes to…actually _going at it_."

She guessed that what he meant was that he liked the _tamer_ side of expressing affection publicly. Examples of that would probably have been the usual, run-of-the-mill kissing, hugging and holding hands.

"I wanna do it with you, I really do." He went on. "But we should save that for more…_private _places."

"You're right." Karen agreed. "Going at it in a field where other people can see us isn't the best place to be."

He smiled playfully. "We've got all the time in the world to do things like that." He noticed her glass was already empty, while his was still lying in amongst the grass. He was thankful the grass was short enough so he could find it. "You want any more?"  
>He was quite happy to stay there with her for one last drink before they parted, but he wanted to look out for <em>her <em>interests more so than his own.

She shook her head, smiling softly. "I should really go and check up on the kids – especially Harry."

"Still having problems, is he?" Chris tilted his head in concern.

"A few." She admitted.

"Karen, I don't understand. You've made no mention to me about any of this. You've been keeping it to yourself?"

She closed her eyes slowly. "I didn't want to worry you – especially since now things between us have really taken off."

"That doesn't mean to say you can't still confide in me," he stated, "just 'cause the two of us have a _relationship_. If anything, you should be doing that more often. Don't feel that you can't open up to me about anything."

Though, what was _he_ doing himself? His private life then involved _Karen_, so technically he should've found it easy to mention at that point in time that he had a daughter that a few weeks ago he knew nothing about. He didn't know _why _he was still holding it off, and so he obviously still held some misgivings about revealing Clara to her.

"I know. You're right and I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise," he reassured her, "we're still ok, aren't we?"  
>Allowing her to link her arm with his, they both left the field together as the sun had started to set in the dusky sky.<p> 


	17. Chapter 17

Friday morning.  
>Chris was amazed at how <em>perfectly<em> the previous night had gotten – and it wasn't about what had gone on between him and Karen.

It wasn't particularly late when he got back after their small date, but he half-expected Clara to have made some catty comment about how he didn't let her know that he was going to come back later and why.

There wasn't so much as a bad word from her when he came in through the flat door, coming in instead to find her curled up on the sofa, waiting for him to come back but not in a dependent sort of way. To him, it was almost as if she'd finally accepted the relationship between them and that was he wanted to happen.

"Love you, dad." Her voice came out soft and tender as she went up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging them both close together.

He was shocked at the action. Was it the same daughter or had she been switched during the time he'd been gone? He caressed her through her long hair at the back, admiring the way it fell into several spirals past her shoulder blades. "Love you too."

He found her still asleep in amongst the thick blankets that morning. No major mishaps happened the previous night, and by that, that meant there were no times during the night where she fell into any bad dreams. That in itself was an improvement, but it didn't mean to say in any shape or form that she wouldn't have any more.

When he got into work, he felt quite relaxed – relaxed enough to catch up on his marking. What had gone on between him and Karen the previous day held him up somewhat, but that didn't mean he couldn't get it done in time to be handed back to his set.

Coincidentally, he came across Harry's practice paper that was second in amongst the pile and he went through each answer, marking it as he would any other.  
>It was only when he came to the end of it to calculate the final score that he got worried.<br>Harry didn't even pass the paper. Not only that, but he was the only one in the set who didn't.

Chris was snapped out of his thought process when his mobile vibrated not too far away from him on his desk. He quickly answered it, surprised to find that Karen had called him.

"I don't think I can come in." She explained.

He sat up in his chair. "Has something happened?" He knew that he had to behave in a professional way towards her, but he had _feelings _for her. How could he not ask her if things at home were bad?

"Something's happened to Jess's baby." She told him. "She woke up this morning to find that she wasn't moving in her cot."

An icy chill slid down his back and he swallowed hard.

"Chris, I…she'd stopped breathing. Her skin had gotten so pale…"

"Is there an ambulance on the way?" He wanted to know. He knew how quick people had to be in getting a seriously unwell baby some medical help.

"I don't know. I don't remember her calling for one."

"She has to get to a hospital." He warned. "Call for an ambulance or drive her up there. Either way she has to get seen to."  
>He hung up after she thanked him, and went back to what he was doing.<p>

That was a point. If Karen wasn't going to be in, that meant he had to cover for her, and it further meant that he wasn't going to be able to have any of his sets and perhaps confront Harry about his very bad score.  
>It could wait – it <em>had <em>to.

For most of the morning, it'd been fairly quiet for Chris. That was quite bad in his case, as when it was quiet, it gave him more of an opportunity to dwell on things. When those things he happened to dwell on were actually not so good to think about, that only worried him all the more. And one thing that had barely left his mind all morning was if Jess's baby was ok. And what about Karen? She was the baby's grandmother. Never mind _her_, but _Jess_ as well.

It wasn't as though he could go over to their place after work, either. Karen could well have welcomed his presence, but as for Jess, she would immediately question as to why he was there and how he knew about what had gone on. That wouldn't have looked good for either of them if the couple were planning on keeping their closer than professional relationship under wraps.

He was given a small reprieve when a knock at the door cut through his train of thought. He peered up to see Tom had come in.

"You ok?" The older male asked him, a concerned expression already on his face yet deepening somewhat after noticing the younger's unfocused appearance.

"Yeah." Chris snapped to. "Yeah, fine." He _especially _didn't want anyone, no matter how close they were to him, to know about what was going on either.

"You seemed as though you were going to fall asleep." He managed a small smirk.

"No, not yet." He sat back in the chair, finding it easier to allow his thoughts to deviate from what was going on in his private life to what it was Tom so urgently needed to see him about. He guessed it was urgent, judging by the way he came in and his overall confused appearance.

"We've got a trespasser onsite."

"Trespasser?" It was _his _turn to be confused. He tilted his head slightly at what he'd said. "What sort of trespasser exactly?"  
>Usually, security would've dealt with the problem with no questions asked, so he couldn't understand why he was informing him of something that could've been sorted out by other people.<p>

"There's someone in the swimming baths." Tom anxiously explained.

"But the baths aren't going to be used till your next set," he stated, "so why are they in there, or more importantly, _how_?"

He shook his head. "I'm guessing someone left one of the doors open."

Chris steadily got up. It was an issue that security could so easily have dealt with themselves, but not when it wasn't within the main building. "Well what do they look like?"

Tom shrugged. "They had a hood up. I couldn't make them out."

"Did you tell them to go?"

He nodded.

"…And?"

He swallowed hard. "They wanted to talk to _you_."

Both males went down to the swimming baths.

"They were in the main area where the pool is. I've got my next set soon, but I don't know if I can start it now because of this." Tom explained, making to go with him but found himself being pushed back.

"You should keep out of this." He warned.

He shook his head anxiously. "Not if it's likely you'll get _hurt_."

"Tom," he smiled reassuringly, "I'm a big boy. And anyway, if it's personal and they only wanted to see me, then it should strictly be just me who goes."

He nodded shakily. "O-ok. But just…please don't get hurt."

Chris slid through the male side of the pool, emerging out into the main area and finding the said slender-bodied, hooded figure on the other side.  
>He inched closer to the other side, realising that they weren't moving away from him as he did so. He couldn't help but find that unusual. "You wanna tell me why you're here?"<p>

They said nothing.  
>The only thing either of them could hear between them was the low buzz of the fans in the ceiling compartments.<p>

He couldn't help but sense a slight eeriness at the entire situation. And why the other person was refusing to say anything yet accepting his gradual closeness towards them struck him as odd.

He found himself within a foot's distance of them, and it was only then that they suddenly wanted to move away from him.  
>He was quicker, pulling the hood down and away from the other's face. He was shocked to find that it was <em>Clara<em>.

She darted her eyes away from him, not wanting to meet his once bright blue orbs, which quickly became a drained icy colour.

"I-I don't understand. How did you know where the school was?"

She shrugged. "I looked it up."

"You shouldn't be here." Chris didn't care why she was there; she was trespassing on school premises. "You have to go back home – now."

"Oh, and what are _you_ going to do about it if I _don't_– throw me out?"

"Don't tempt me." He stated bluntly.

Clara was taken aback at his answer. "You can't do that – I'm your daughter."

"That doesn't matter, you're still trespassing."

"So now I'm _trespassing_?" She taunted. "Sounds all too familiar, doesn't it?"

"For whatever reason you're here," he grabbed a handful of her jacket, "you have to save it for when I get home from work. Take yourself home right now, young lady."

She pulled his hand off her, surprised that she managed to do so.  
>He was obviously not holding onto her with his full strength, which gave her the impression that he was trying to go as easy on her as he could.<br>"You're cute when you're in work mode." She giggled.

"Clara, this isn't funny. I won't tell you again." He grabbed another handful of her jacket, that time becoming firmer with her.

She was frightened that he _did_ mean what he was saying and that he was _indeed_ close to throwing her out as he'd threatened to.  
>She'd never experienced the stricter side to him, she'd never crossed it before, but if he weren't very happy with her he probably wouldn't have been afraid to <em>show <em>it.  
>"Ok," she shook him off her again, "have it your way. If it's what you want."<p>

"It _isn't_ what I want." Chris took on a laxer posture. "Do you think I'm _enjoying _warning you to go and throwing you out if you don't do as I say?"

"You tell me," Clara shrugged, putting her hands in her pockets as he came closer to her again, "you're the one who said you'd do it."

"That's 'cause it's my _job_." He retorted.

"Well _do _it already." She snapped back.

He paused, edging back a little.  
>"I can't." He eventually admitted as he cast his gaze away. He just didn't have it in him.<br>To throw his own daughter off his work premises…didn't seem right. It _wasn't_ right. What if he _hurt_ her? What if the moment he manhandled her outside the school gates she took it the wrong way, threatened to walk out of his life and told him she'd never see him again? He wouldn't forgive himself for that. "I don't wanna do it."

She smirked. "I wonder _why_."

He decided to retreat. The entire situation was just so complex.  
>"I won't throw you out," he explained, "but I <em>do <em>want you to go."

She pulled her hood back up over her head again after he'd pulled it down.

"I'm going to leave now but there's going to be a set starting here within ten minutes," he went on, "in that time I want you _gone_."  
>He disappeared out of view, hoping that she'd taken on what he said and that she would indeed go.<p> 


	18. Chapter 18

Chris went back to Karen's room, going back to what he was doing.  
>Everything was becoming so confusing – Karen's grandchild was seriously unwell and if that wasn't bad enough, his own daughter decided to show up and fluster him for whatever reason she was there for.<p>

Why _was_ she there exactly? Everything between them sorted itself out, so he couldn't understand how she could suddenly have some personal vendetta against him. The previous night she told him that she _loved_ him.  
>That might not have been the case that day. It certainly <em>seemed <em>that way anyway.

Telling himself to think no more of it, he went back to what he was writing, only to have Tom hastily come in through the door. A more panic-stricken expression formed on his face, and he immediately feared the worst.

Had Clara…_attacked_ him? Had she attacked one of his _set_? He sharply got up out of the chair, his eyes fixed on the older male's. He didn't want to think the worst of his own daughter, but anything was possible – especially in the volatile state she was seemingly in.

"We have to call for an ambulance." He explained palely.

"Why, what has she done?" Chris immediately assumed that Clara had indeed not taken on what he'd said about leaving.

He shook his head. "She hasn't done anything…not that I know of."

"Tom, I…" He came from behind the desk. "I don't understand."

"I went to take my set in for the swimming session."

The younger male noticed how pale he sounded and looked. He raised an eyebrow in concern.

"Chris, I think she's dead."

He swallowed hard and he was sure his throat tightened at his words.  
>"Sh-she can't be." He faintly stated. "Not if nothing happened."<p>

"She'd sunk to the bottom of the deep end." Tom went on. "She jumped in there and…she must've known she couldn't swim...I-I mean, why do that?"

Feeling a sudden jolt of adrenaline kick in, he rushed down to the swimming baths with Tom chasing after him.  
>"Why didn't you call for an ambulance?" He suddenly asked him, unable to suppress the protectiveness in his voice.<p>

"I-I don't know…" He weakly replied. "I guess I didn't expect to find her there."

"Where are your set?"

"I cleared them out of the pool as soon as I found her." He explained.

Chris came into the main pool area, finding Clara had indeed lifelessly sunk to the bottom of the deep end. His adrenaline went into overdrive, prompting him to peel his suit jacket off and dive in after her.

Tom breathed at the young male's athleticism, but grew worried when he didn't surface straightaway with the girl.  
>He felt relief wash over him as he emerged, pulling Clara up behind him. He helped him out, and then helped in pulling her out straight after.<p>

Tom laid her down onto her back on the side and made to start resuscitating her when Chris placed a hand on top of his. "She's not breathing."

"Let _me_ do it." He insisted, his eyes revealing something to the older of the two males, but not quite giving anything away. Clara was his _daughter_, and he was sure she'd have a better chance at pulling through if he used _his _breath to save her.

He nodded unsurely. A few seconds had gone by and in that time she may have had a better chance at coming round.

He knelt down beside her, gently tilting her head up and placing his lips around her smaller ones, breathed into her a few times.

Within a few minutes of breathing into her and pressing down onto her chest, she stirred and violently coughed up the water she'd breathed in.  
>Chris helped her to sit up, feeling a wave of relief crash over him at the realisation that he'd saved her life.<br>"Thank god," his voice was faint with shock, "thank god you're ok."

Tom knelt down beside them both.

He turned to him. "I guess you can carry on with your set now."

"What about her?" He wanted to know. "You sure she'll be ok?"

He looked to her, placing a hand on her back.  
>"I'll sort her out." He stated. "You've got a set to be carrying on with."<br>He took Clara into a small room within the pool's outhouse, helping her to sit down on a stool so he could find her a towel. Managing to find one, he carefully wrapped it around her, keeping it as close to her as he could.

"I guess I should thank you." She mumbled.

"On top of the fact that you should apologise to me as well." Chris finely added, placing a hand on his hip as he looked to her. "Clara, that was so stupid of you. What was going through your mind before you did that?"

"You wanted me to disappear."

"No, not like that I didn't." He cast his gaze to the floor. "Do you know how close I came to losing you? You could've _died_."

She drew in a small sigh.

"Never mind how bad _I _was going to feel after finding out about what you'd done." He couldn't be annoyed at her for long, and he started to rub her down with the towel.

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't say sorry." He replied firmly. For her to say sorry to him didn't quite cut it. What she'd done was inexcusable and it was going to take more than an apology to put it right. "We should just carry on with the way we are."

Clara nodded sadly. She knew what she'd done had angered him – probably beyond words. After all, she almost took her own life. "I just felt so bad."

"You shouldn't _have _to." Chris stated, as he made to dry her hair. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"But what about the times when you aren't?" She looked to him. "You're not going to be there for me all the time, are you?"

"There comes a time when I have to not be there for you." He noted. "You're not a baby."

"I know." She felt the tears shimmer behind her eyes. "Sometimes I feel that no one loves me."

"No," he shook his head softly, "don't think that, sweetheart. _I _love you, you know that, right?"

"Do you?"

"Yes." He squeezed the ends of her dark hair between the creases of the towel. "Do you sometimes doubt that?"

She shrugged. "I guess so."

He stopped drying her hair, putting it to one side so he could go down to her level and get her to look into his eyes. "That why you did that?"

Clara said nothing, but felt the urge to pull her hood back up and not let him see her face. Instead, she turned away from him.

"Don't turn away from me." Chris placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back round to face him again. "You've got nothing to hide from me. If you tell me either way, I'm not going to get angry with you."

She drew in another small sigh.

"I just wanna know, that's all, sweetheart," he squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, "I won't love you any less. But I can help you if that's what you want."

She closed her eyes and nodded, sending a slight weight into the pit of his stomach.

"Ok," he stated softly, "I can help you."

She could sense from the tone of his voice about his innermost intentions. "You're going to send me away." She shakily noted. "You're going to take me to a doctor and they're going to take me away."

"No," he rubbed her gently, "no, they won't do anything you don't want them to – not without your say-so."

"But you're still going to take me to a _shrink_." Clara replied with stark horror.

"I still love you the same," Chris went on, "but it'll work out better for both of us if I take you somewhere you can get help."

"I can't believe what you're saying." She tore herself away from him. "You said you would let us carry on with the way things are, but that's not what you want at all."

"I'd rather you go somewhere you can get help than to let you carry on and endanger yourself." He stated. "You're not well, sweetheart."

"Then make me better." She tore up to him, placing her hands around his wrists. "I don't want anyone else but you to make me better."

"I can't." He admitted softly. "I can't be that person. The doctors know more about what you've got."

"I haven't got anything." She retorted, pulling herself away from him when she realised he wasn't playing along with what she wanted him to do. "There's nothing wrong with me and you can't make me go anywhere I don't wanna go."  
>And with that, she disappeared, leaving him alone in the small room.<p>

Later that night.  
>Chris was thankful that Clara hadn't packed her bags and left him after their run-in.<br>He found her curled up on her bed with her back to him when he stood in the room's doorway, the pair of them not saying a word to each other since he got home from work.  
>The silent treatment can't go on forever, surely.<p>

The time soon came up to half-past seven. By that time he'd gotten pretty hungry and he was sure she wasn't far off being so as well.  
>"Clara," he started, leaning against the doorway to her room, "it's getting late if you wanted anything for me to get for you."<p>

She didn't so much as stir or say a word.

"I know we should be steering clear of takeouts and heavy stuff like that, but the offer's there if you want one."

Still no answer.

Sighing, he sat next to her on the bed, causing the mattress at his side to dip a little and slide her against his thigh. "I know you don't like me that much right now and you probably think of me as some really bad person, but I want you to get better."

"There's nothing wrong with me," she stated, "why can't you see that?"

"It might not have to be for very long." He ignored her question. "It could be a few days, maybe even a week."

"Maybe even a few _months_, from what I've heard."

Chris shrugged. "In more extreme cases, yeah." He placed a hand on her back. "But we don't want it to get that far, do we?"

Clara pulled herself away from his touch, sharply looking round at him. "So you're not denying there's something wrong with me then?" She sat up, looking into his eyes that were devoid of any anger. "Stop playing mind games with me."

"I'm not," he inched closer to her, "really, I'm not."

She quickly escaped under the blankets, the nipping sensation of hunger fading away all of a sudden. "Stay away from me." She warned him.

"Clara," he started, knowing that in all honesty she wasn't that well at all. Refusing to eat wasn't a good sign either, especially when she hadn't eaten all day and was probably starving.

"I don't want you to touch me," she went on, "till you stop threatening to take me away."

He decided to hold off for then. There wasn't a lot he could've done and he didn't feel comfortable in whisking her out of bed and manhandling her into the car to take her to a doctor.  
>He got off the bed, switching the lamp off and leaving her to sleep.<p> 


	19. Chapter 19

Saturday morning.  
>It should've been quite a blissful morning for Chris, as he was off work. What didn't make the weekend so merry for him was the fact that Clara had warned him off her.<p>

It made him feel like he was being seen as some bad person – someone who was planning on taking her away to a doctor and never get her to see him again.

That was a terrible thing to think on her part. How could his own daughter make him out to be someone who didn't _love_ her? And he _did_ really love her, which was why he was trying so hard to get her to see she needed help.

Clara scuttled out of her room later that evening, sitting down on the sofa next to him but choosing to inch to the far side of it so he couldn't interact with her. She had her back turned to him, and he was sure that although he was given a fleeting sight of her, the dark circles under her eyes were prominent enough to show she'd hardly slept. If that were the case, what was she doing in her room all day – lying on her back in bed looking up at the ceiling?

"You must be starving." He slowly pointed out, remembering that she hadn't eaten at all the previous night and was at least trying to break the awkward silence between them.

"What do _you _care?" She snapped, bringing her legs up to her chest. "You wanna send me away."

"I can't do anything till you let me," Chris explained, "and don't think for one minute it's something I wanna do. 'Cause it isn't."

"How can I _believe _you?" She turned round to look at him that time. "After telling me that you wanted to keep things the way they were, and then deciding to send me away."

He said nothing, but cast his gaze down to the floor. She had him there, he had to admit, but it was a split-second decision about sending her away. "I didn't mean to lie to you, if that was the way it came out."

"Whether you meant what you said or not, I wasn't going to change my mind." Clara noted.

"Well then, that's up to you." He looked to her steadily. "But I can't force you to go if you're not going to let me. So you've got it your way for now."

She twirled the ends of her dark hair with an index finger in a pensive way. She'd grown aware of how coarse and dry it'd gotten.

Chris realised she'd let herself go a little bit, and it was something he didn't want to see. "You should have a bath." He noticed a bewildered look forming on her face.

"I smell that bad, do I?"

He inwardly found that a little funny, though he knew it really wasn't a laughing matter. They'd barely spoken to each other since the previous night! "Taking a bath will help you relax."

The look of bewilderment deepened all the more.

"Don't worry," he smirked cheekily, in an attempt to instil a bit of humour into the atmosphere, "I promise not to look at anything I shouldn't."

"But if I'm…you know…with no clothes on, you'll look without wanting to." Clara squirmed a little in her place on the sofa, and felt all the more self-conscious when she got up and found him still looking at her.

He took in her slender, well-formed figure, gauging her silhouette from underneath her long pastel-blue sleeveless top and black leggings. He couldn't deny that he and his ex had done a perfect job with creating her!  
>"Well," he started, getting a towel from the bathroom, "there's a way around that!"<p>

He started to run the bath for her whilst she got stripped in her room so that he couldn't see her in a state of undress. That would not make him feel very comfortable.

She emerged into the bathroom with the towel he'd given her around her so as to protect her modesty.

"All ready now?"

She nodded dimly, and he helped her into the bath as she kept the large towel wrapped around her body. The water was a nice balmy temperature, not too hot and not too cold but at the same time not tepid.

Chris bent down to her level and started to wet her hair with the flannel he had lying about. "You can fill it with bubbles after I wash your hair if you want." He didn't know why he even talked to her, as he would have to someone who was ten years younger than her. She wasn't a baby, but he _did _like making a fuss of her. She was the only daughter he had, so why not?

Clara closed her eyes when he massaged a very pleasantly scented shampoo into her scalp and through to the ends of her hair. She found the touch very relaxing.  
>"That feels so good…" Her voice tailed off due to how relaxed it was making her feel.<p>

He smirked to himself. Why did he suddenly feel like some professional hairdresser? "Well, it'll do your hair some good, especially after being in all that chlorine. I would've hated for it to start splitting."

"Would it have done that?"

He felt a little happier in realising that she was willing to hold conversation with him. He kept the relaxing scalp massage going till the shampoo lathered up for him to rinse off. "Eventually. It'd make the hair much more fragile anyway if that didn't happen."

Images of blue flooded back to her, and there came a feeling of heaviness. It was almost as if she was fighting to keep her head up above the blue heaviness, and her eyes flashed open, prompting him to quickly pull away as she sat up bolt upright in the tub.

"Clara?"

She felt a little unwell, and she was sure she was starting to come over faint. "I don't feel so good." She grabbed hold of the side of the bath as Chris pressed the wet flannel against her upper back.

He wasn't sure what had happened. He'd only just finished rinsing the soapy water from her scalp and her long hair, and it wasn't as though the water she was in was hot as he tested it himself before she got in.

He frowned in concern at the fact that it could well have been a delayed reaction to the cold water in the swimming pool. He hoped that it wasn't going to develop into full-blown hypothermia but she didn't have chills, which was a good sign. The only thing he could do for her for then was to hold her – reassure her that she was ok.

"Clara…ssh…it's ok now. It's ok, it's over." He could gather she'd suffered a flashback and that it was harking back to what happened before he pulled her out of the pool.

"M-make it stop." Clara immediately grabbed two wet handfuls of his t-shirt and buried her face in it, not caring if she made it damp.

"No one is here to hurt you. It's just you and I. Relax…" He slid an index finger up and down her back through the soaked towel that was still covering her.

The rest of her soak went quite well apart from that small mishap. He wrapped a completely dry towel around her after the water had been drained away and she sat on her bed while he started to comb through her long, dark hair.

"I love you," he stated, sliding his other hand along the wet strands, "and I won't do anything to hurt you."

"I know you won't," she assured him, "but it felt so real and I just got so frightened."

"Flashbacks do that." He pointed out. "They turn out to be even _more_ frightening if they seem or feel as real as they are."

"I didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't." Chris was trying very hard to be careful with combing the longer strands of her hair, making sure that the tangles didn't get caught in its teeth. "I haven't got anything in the way of a hairdryer, so I'm going to have to let you go to bed with wet hair."

"That's ok," she flipped her long, damp hair over her shoulder and allowing it to loosely cascade down her back, "it doesn't look any different if I'd have let it dry on its own."

He nodded appreciatively. He'd always liked her hair, admiring the way it would fall into spirals. "You've got lovely hair," he twirled a few strands to make them coil all the more, "it's in such good condition. I could sit here all day and comb it just to watch where the spirals would end."

She came over a little shy at his comment, as he rubbed the partially wet towel into the ends of her hair to get the worst of the dampness off.

"Now then, my princess," he peered at her with his bright blue eyes glimmering, "what do you feel like eating?"

Clara had gotten so relaxed from what he'd done with her that she'd completely overlooked her stomach nagging at her to feed it.

"You can have anything you want," he added coaxingly, "and that includes takeouts."

"Even a _Chinese _takeout?"

"If that's what you want." Chris knowingly smirked. How did he guess she would've gone for something like that? He wasn't complaining though, as he was more partial to those himself.

"I think my stomach needs feeding."

He laughed a little. "Well, why am I not surprised?" He got his jacket on after he'd gotten off her bed and disappeared out of the room. "I shouldn't be too long in getting that."

She certainly came over more relaxed at the fact that he'd looked after her through her flashback. He didn't do much, but he did enough to stabilise and ground her – pull her back down into reality again. All she really wanted was for someone to hold her and tell her that she'd be ok.

Maybe she didn't _need _to be taken to a doctor, but he knew that it'd be worth monitoring her till he was sure she'd be fine. For all he knew it could be a temporary improvement in her condition and the next day she could get sick again.

"We should go there more often." Clara remarked, as Chris took her empty plate off her.

"As if we don't go there often enough." He teased, as he put both of them on the side. "We can't make too much of a habit out of going there, it's not good."

"True," she shrugged, as he retook his spot next to her on the sofa, "but why do such bad things taste so good?"

He sat back, inviting her to snuggle up next to him. He wrapped an arm around her as she placed a hand against his flat stomach.

She was amazed at how little fat had accumulated on him after eating so much. _He must have really high metabolism_, she thought to herself.  
>Not that she was complaining. She <em>loved t<em>he fact that he wasn't exactly stick-thin, but comfortably soft enough to hug and wrap her arms around.

"I didn't know if you wanted to watch a film or anything." He said after a few minutes of watching something that _really_ didn't interest him. "I know there's not a lot on a Saturday night, but…"

She sat up, looking to him through the dim light. "Depends what you have."

"I've got a pile of DVDs I can rifle through for us if you want." He offered.

"What's with _you _going through them?" Clara teased. "Worried I might pick something naughty?"

Chris raised an eyebrow. "Are you suggesting I keep naughty DVDs and watch them?" He took on a more serious look. "I just don't want the pile to…you know…get disturbed."  
>Images of the mountain of DVDs collapsing with all of them sliding about like dominoes all over the floor made him squirm.<p>

"Oh, I see. A perfectionist, I take it?"

"No," he smirked, "just with the DVDs."

She brought her legs up onto the sofa in a more comfortable position.

"I'll get us something _both_ of us will like and that you won't sleep through." He disappeared out of sight, and set about rifling through DVD Mountain when he heard his mobile vibrate on his nightstand. Frowning, he answered.  
>"Karen…" he breathed in mild surprise. "Hey."<p>

"Enjoying your Saturday night?" She asked him at the other end.

He'd hoped she wasn't asking him to come over for some fun or to arrange something for the next day. Not if Clara wasn't fully better. "Immensely." He replied. _Before you called_, he felt like adding.  
>His Saturday night would've gone more perfectly if the two of them were alone, spending 'father and daughter time' together. "How's Jess's baby?"<p>

"Fine," she answered, "absolutely fine. It was a close call though. She must've been lying in a strange position in her cot."

"But Karen," he wished the call would end, "babies don't get themselves into strange positions in their own cot. It's usually the responsibility of the mother to make sure they're sleeping properly."

There came a pause at her end. "Are you saying my own daughter almost killed her baby?"

"Well, I wouldn't like to put it like that, but…"

"I can't believe you think my daughter is some sort of killer." Karen stonily replied, cutting off the call.

Well, that made things easier for him. She'd cool off in her own time, and anyway, since when was Jess considered ideal mother material anyway? He went back to picking out a DVD, careful not to cause an avalanche as he slid one from between the others.

"Right then," Chris stated enthusiastically, "see what you make of that." He handed the case to Clara, who read the back of it.

She nodded in agreement. "Seems ok."

"You sure it's something you wanna see?" He sat down next to her. "If you're unsure, I can get another one…"

"Dad," she threw her arms around his waist, "as long as we're together, I don't mind."


	20. Chapter 20

"Feel ok so far?" Chris peered down at Clara through the glow coming out from the screen.

She nodded softly, snuggling into him some more. He felt so warm and soft, like a giant teddy bear. She felt like drifting off against his body when he stroked her through her slightly damp hair and twirled a few strands with his index finger.

"If you wanna sleep, we can stop it and you can go to bed." He offered. He didn't want her to sit through an entire film if her eyes came close to closing.

"No, it isn't that."

He sat up a little. "Then what?" Was she feeling unwell again? He hoped not.

She looked to him, noticing the exceptionally different tints of blue within his eyes as they shimmered from the light. She didn't want him to worry. She shrugged. "I just feel so good being with you."

Chris felt her answer make him glow inside and he came over feeling a little warm and fuzzy. "Well, that's my job."

Clara sighed blissfully in his embrace. "I thought you'd have gone to see your girlfriend over the weekend."

He peered down at the floor sadly. "I'm not seeing her till Monday."

"Oh dear," she smiled softly, "had a barney?"

"A bit of one." He admitted. "It'll sort itself out by then, I'm sure."

She closed her eyes and ran a hand up and down his broad chest affectionately. "If you're so sure it'll work itself out, you must have a good relationship."

"Yeah…" His voice tailed off as he thought about what he and Karen did in her room that day. And boy, did it feel good! "…We _do _have a good relationship."

She shifted about next to him before getting more comfortable. "I don't wanna be sent to a shrink."

"It's ok, we shouldn't have to worry about that for now." He assured her. "You're ok at the moment, and it isn't something I'm going to openly consider unless you get sick."

"I was pretty ill earlier."

"I know you were," Chris felt sleepy himself as she rubbed him down his chest in an affectionate way, "but I managed to pull you out of it, didn't I?"

Clara flitted her gaze back to the screen. "But you're not going to be there for me all the time."

"I don't know what you're suggesting." He just wanted to get pleasure from the fact that they were both huddled up together, enjoying each other's company and closeness. Maybe she was trying to tell him that he was right about wanting to send her off, but was that a good thing? "I wanna be there for you all the time, and if anything happens when I'm not there…"

"But you can't." She cut him off softly. "There are going to be times when I'm going to be in or out on my own. You can't control me."

"I don't _wanna _control you, sweetheart." He drew in a small sigh. "I'm just worried that things will happen when I'm not there. That's why I want you to stay here – so I know where you are."

"So you're just keeping me here, like a prisoner?"

"You're not a prisoner." He protested. "I will let you go out and about by yourself, but just not right now."

She sharply looked to him. "You let me run amok in the city centre with your debit card."

"Yeah, but that was before all these problems started." He put the film on pause so they didn't end up talking all the way through it. "I can't let you go anywhere without my permission, Clara, I just can't. I love you too much to do that."

"But I won't run away."

"I know you won't," Chris noted quietly, "but flashbacks…they make people do all sorts and the next one you have may make you wanna run away."

She peered down at the floor, shaking her head a little. "It's like you don't trust me and you don't want me to have any independence. I'm _eighteen years old_."

He tilted his head in confusion. He felt she was missing the point. It wasn't that he didn't trust _her_; he didn't trust her _condition_. "I _do _want you to have independence…"

"No, you don't." Clara swiftly got up and allowed her gaze to dart straight to him. "You're lying again."

"But I'm not…"

"Know what? I don't need you," she glared at him before moving towards her room's door, "I'm capable of looking after myself." And she disappeared into her room, shutting the door and locking it closed.

Chris remained relatively quiet and composed. Their relationship hadn't exactly gotten worse – it was just her condition and that she was saying and doing things that she otherwise wouldn't. He told himself to wait and see what she'd be like the next day. She was getting tired as well, which probably didn't help her.

She felt tears roll down her cheeks as she buried her face into her pillow. Her body was telling her to sleep, but how could she when she felt as bad as she did?

It came up to midnight.  
>Clara glided into a very short dress and slipped on a pair of ridiculously high-heels. She took a little bit of getting used to them but within minutes she got the hang of wearing them.<p>

"He can't stop me from doing what I want," she told herself as she applied a sheer lip gloss, "this is what I wanna do and I'll be back before he knows anything about this."

After she'd dolled herself up, she got her clutch bag and tried to quietly sneak out. She couldn't see Chris anywhere, and assumed he'd gone to bed.  
>He only ever went to bed fairly late on a weekend night if he was tired enough. Either that or he wanted some time to think about what to do with her.<p>

Opening the door to his room, she found him curled up in bed, deeply asleep. A small streak of light flashed across the carpet and onto the bedclothes that were covering him. He dimly stirred but he didn't wake up.

She smirked to herself. She would be heading outside – and he wouldn't know anything about it. She quietly closed the room's door, ensuring it didn't wake him, and then left.

Four o' clock in the morning.  
>Chris stirred awake, slowly sitting up in amongst the blankets. He was shocked at what time it was. Usually he'd sleep straight through if he was tired enough, but he assumed that what had gone on between him and Clara hadn't escaped him.<p>

He rubbed his eyes, as they felt so heavy-lidded from sleep. He couldn't understand what was going on with her and he became very worried that the flashback had done more to her than he thought.  
>He wanted to help her, he really did, and the only way he could feel fully reassured that she was going to be ok was if he either kept her with him at all times or in a sheltered mental home.<p>

He felt that if he maybe stayed with her long enough while she was sleeping, he could probably decide for himself. He quietly pushed the door to her room open, and was shocked to find that she'd made her bed and left.

He realised that she hadn't fully left as such, but she'd certainly disappeared from the flat. All trace of sleep had been wiped from him, and he quickly got himself dressed, got his car keys and went to find her.  
>He was <em>not <em>going to lose his own daughter.

Chris spent all of the early morning driving around each and every side street he could think of that Clara could've wandered down.  
>It seemed like it was going to turn out to be a particularly clear day, and the streetlights lit up the pavements they lined so she pretty much had nowhere to go without him finding her.<p>

He presently came to a stop in one of the last side streets he was considering to look down, coming across a curled-up mass on the pavement.

Clara mumbled dimly as she felt a pair of bright lights glide onto her before shimmering off onto the dry pavement she was lying on. It made her head hurt, and the urge to be sick grew more. She tried to open her eyes, finding it useless when her body felt so heavy from the alcohol.

She felt herself get swept away. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, but there was something ethereal about it.

Chris lifted the lifeless body into his arms, holding her close to him as he carried her to his car and laid her down in the back. He wasn't sure how many she had, but she'd probably gone over her limit judging by how knocked out she was.  
>She was going to be on a lot of water when he took her back.<p>

She wandered back into consciousness, and she felt the bright light from the filtering in sunshine hit her across her eyes.  
>The glare upset her stomach slightly, and she mumbled weakly from the disgusting feelings.<p>

"It's ok, it's ok." A familiarly paternal voice spoke soothingly to her, helping her to sit up on her bed and lean slightly forwards.

"My tummy…"

A large plastic bowl was placed in front of her, and her insides were leaving her with no other option but to be sick into it.  
>Her guts gave an excruciating lurch, and she found herself ejecting the contents of them into the bowl.<br>She couldn't stop the chills that were racking her, and she was close to crying from how bad she felt.

Chris sadly kept beside her as she'd finished being sick, and he sat her back against the headboard when he took the bowl away from her so he could empty it. "Feel any better now?"

Clara nodded shakily, feeling herself zone out again. "You're mad at me…aren't you?"

He drew in a small breath, as he'd run the bowl under the cold water in the bathroom. "Well, no."

"But I left without you knowing anything about it."

He sat back down next to her on the bed, applying a coolly wet cloth to her forehead.  
>"I should've kept more of an eye on you." He admitted loosely. "And I guess I should expect some unstable behaviour coming from you."<p>

"I am _not_ unstable." Clara protested.

"So getting yourself completely wasted isn't considered unstable behaviour?" He stated matter-of-factly. "Then what _is _it exactly?" He'd had enough of trying to be sympathetic with her. By her not agreeing to his observations of how unwell she really was blew it for him.

"I just wanted to go out for fun," she noticed his eyes retained their uncharacteristic hardness, "without you interfering."

"Clara," Chris started in a weak voice, "right now I _have_ to intervene. You're in no fit state to go out, dressed like that, on your own." It hurt him to see what she was doing to herself. She was _seriously_ setting herself up for trouble, and by wearing what she was she was touting herself inappropriately.  
>Her behaviour was beginning to be unmanageable, and he was hugely tempted to send her away.<p>

She peered down at the end of her dress, noticing it had gotten some trace of mud on it. The dress itself was made of quite a sheer fabric, and it was probably something that could only withstand a hand wash.

"I bet that cost a fair bit." He remarked, remembering the way he found her. "That was so stupid of you, so really stupid. What would've happened if I hadn't have woken up when I did and then gone out to look for you?"

She shrugged. "You would've found me eventually."

"This has gone too far now," he softly took hold of her hands, "and I wanna help you 'cause I _love _you."

"If you love me, why are you taking me out of your life?"

"I'm not, really, I'm not." He caressed the soft points of the insides of her wrists with his thumbs. "But you won't get better any other way. You have to go for some help."

She pulled her hands away from his. "Just as I was beginning to trust you again…"

"You can _still_ trust me." Chris noted softly, his eyes not straying away from her for a split second. "What they do with you will not hurt you. They might not even have to do anything to you anyway, but you're getting worse without help and it's hurting me as well as you."

"I won't do anything ever again. I promise I won't…" She protested.

Her protest prompted him to wrap his arms around her and hug her close to his body. "I know, and I believe you when you say that," he stroked her down her back that was uncovered by the dress, "but what's happening is something you can't stop."

"I don't know how to." She sobbed against his shoulder, burying her nose into his musky-scented t-shirt. "I wanna do it _without _help."

He could only hold her there, caressing her down her back. He felt awful at not being able to do more for her. "I know you do, love."

Clara's sobs soon tailed off, as they continued to huddle up together on her bed. She was close to drifting off against him, feeling each and every stroke he dealt to her take the pain away.

Chris carefully laid her down on the bed, cupping her face softly as he made to get his mobile out and call for a doctor to see her. He didn't want to do it, he really didn't. But how else could he help her?


	21. Chapter 21

The doctor came round later that day, and Chris took him straight through to where Clara was sleeping.

"I'm really sorry if I dragged you out during the weekend." He noted apologetically.

"No, it's not a problem. Once my secretary told me how urgent it all seemed to be, I cancelled any other triage appointments to get here."

"She's sleeping at the moment," he explained, "that's really the only time she'd let you do anything with her."

"In that case," the doctor sat on the other side of the bed as she remained asleep, "if you want to go through her behaviour with me, that should be ok for now and when she gets more used to the idea of staying at the home, we can arrange for her to go."

He drew in a small sigh. He went through everything with him, including her behaviour the previous night – how she left and the state he found her in.

"That doesn't sound good at all." He noted, looking over at her. "She sounds like she could be very badly traumatised."

"So you can't take her for now?"

"Unfortunately not," he could see how weighed down the young male looked, "not without her consent. By the look of it, it'd be a huge weight lifted from you but it's not going to be fair on her if she's taken against her will."

"I just want her to get better." Chris peered over at her, sweeping her dark hair back over the pillow. "That's all I want."

The doctor could also see how devoted he was being with Clara. "If it makes you feel any better, you can always give her something to help calm her down."

"S-so we're talking drugs now?" He didn't like the idea of drugging his angel, but if it meant it'd help…

"Just a simple sedative," he fished around in his pocket and managed to pull out a small bottle, "give her one or two teaspoons of that before she goes to bed. It'll help her to relax."

He reluctantly took it from him. He didn't think for one minute that he could get her to take the medication, and there was no way of hiding the fact that she had to take it.

Clara awoke some time later when it came to early evening, and she felt a wave of relief wash over her at finding herself still lying in bed with the blankets over her.

"Feel any better?" The young male stood in the room's doorway, seemingly knowing that she was going to wake up.

She nodded slowly. "I'm sorry." She watched him come into the room and sit next to her on the bed. "I'm sorry for going out when I shouldn't have and for being sick…"

He drew in a small sigh and parted the long shiny ends of her hair to one side so it all cascaded over the front of her shoulder. "I'm just glad I found you when I did."

"I guess you're wanting to send me away now." She couldn't blame him for becoming a little bit worried about her.

Chris looked to her carefully. "I don't _want _to, that's the thing." He twirled a few wavy ends of her hair around his index finger. "I know it's something you don't want and that's what's putting me off taking you."

She watched him get up and she noticed he was holding a small bottle. "What's that?" She asked out of interest.

He couldn't lie to her. Not to his own daughter. "The doctor gave it to me to give to you."

"D-drugs?"

"He said it was something to help you sleep." He explained, immediately knowing that she wouldn't like the sound of that. He watched her free herself from the blankets. "Maybe if you give it a chance…"

"No," she retorted angrily, "I _won't_. You're supposed to be helping me."

"I _am _helping you." He protested. "By taking this, you'll feel better."

She shook her head.

"Clara, I'm sorry, really I am. I'm sorry if you don't accept what I'm trying to do for you, but believe it or not I wanna make this as painless as I can without you getting taken to a mental home."

She cast her gaze down to the floor sadly. _Painless? What does he know about painless?_

"Please," Chris placed a hand on her shoulder, "at least see if it helps for one night. And if it doesn't, I won't get you to take it again."

Clara felt his hand squeeze her there softly. She knew he meant well and that he was only trying to help her, but he obviously knew enough to know how sick she was and how to go about treating it. "Ok," she agreed eventually, "if you want me to take it, then I will."

He felt a small relief wash over him. He didn't want to resort to medicating her, but the doctor approved of it so it must be ok.

When it came nearer to the time for her to sleep, he came back into her room with the bottle and a spoon.

"I've got to have it _now_?" She pouted, sitting up in amongst the blankets.

"Afraid so." He sat next to her on the bed and carefully poured out one teaspoon for her.

She let him give it to her and she made a few interesting faces as she swallowed it.

He laughed a little. "Medicines aren't supposed to be nice."

"Wish it was nice and sweet."

"Well, it isn't, so you've got to put up with it, I'm afraid to say." He got another spoonful ready. "Want your second one?"

"No." She grimaced.

"Tough," he playfully smirked, "you're having it."

Chris kept beside Clara, keeping a close eye on her for the first few signs of drowsiness. It was only when the time approached close to ten minutes that she started to rub her eyes.  
>"You wanna lie down?" He suggested, noticing she was getting tired quite quickly. He didn't expect the medication to be so fast-acting.<p>

"I'm not sleepy."

"I think you _are_." He teased, getting her to lie down properly on her back under the blankets. He swept a hand over her forehead, softly caressing the smooth contour above her eyebrow with his thumb. That action only made her sleepier. "Close your eyes now."

She tried to focus on something, to keep her from falling asleep. But the effects of the medication were overtaking her and she felt that she had to give in to it. His stroking wasn't helping either!  
>Her eyelids flagged more, and she couldn't stay awake any longer.<p>

"Good girl." He carefully rearranged her long dark hair so that it scattered over her pillow. "Sleep well."

Monday morning.  
>Karen had come back into work, knowing straightaway of something she really felt she should do.<br>She went to Chris's room, finding him perched behind his desk and trying to get on with some marking. He seemed just as preoccupied as she had been herself.

He didn't have a set, so she obviously caught him at a good time.

He stopped what he was doing as she came in. He didn't know what she was going to say or what she was going to do. For all he knew, she could be coming in to say that their relationship was over. He decided to keep quiet.

"I heard what happened Friday." She started, casting her gaze to the floor.

He tilted his head in mild confusion. A lot of things happened that day, what could she have possibly heard?

"What you did was very brave, Chris."

He peered down at the floor. "Anyone would've done it. Not just me…" He knew she must've meant Clara falling or jumping into the swimming pool.

"No one like _you_." She came closer to him, looking straight at him as he darted his gaze to her.

"I know I said some pretty harsh things the other night, but…"

"No, you were right. After talking to the doctor yesterday, it turned out Jess _had _been laying the baby down in a strange position. But she's been taught how to lay her down in the proper way now."

"That's good news." Chris went back to what he was writing, but was stopped when Karen's hand placed itself on his arm and squeezed him at his bicep that was uncovered by his t-shirt. It was contact he hadn't expected, but it did feel good.

"I really missed you during the weekend." She caressed the soft dewy flesh there teasingly. "I wished I could've seen you…"

He swallowed hard as the caressing moved up his arm.

"…Slept with you…" She slid in front of him, leaning over and placing her hands on his thighs.

The touch prompted him to jump.

"…Touched you…" She was close to sitting on him, and she was sure he wouldn't have minded.

Sure enough, he didn't mind. He wrapped his arms around her as she placed her hands on his shoulders.

"Doing such naughty things to you…" She caressed him under his jaw with an index finger, prompting him to tilt his head up to look at her. "…Things that'd make you go." She saw the young male's eyes mist over with pleasure. She wished she could have him right there and then, he looked so tempting!

Chris shivered slightly in excitement as she leant forward and pressed her lips down onto his. They shared a very shy kiss but it became more teasing when their mouths oscillated playfully.

"Are you up to anything particularly important?" Karen huskily wanted to know, sliding her index finger from the underside of his jaw to the side of his neck. Such beautifully soft skin…

"N-not really." His answer prompted a dark, naughty smile to form at her mouth.

"Well then," she continued the tempting touch, "maybe we should put this time to good use."

He tried to resist the stimulation but found it hard to do so when their lips connected again. He whimpered cutely at her fingertips sliding themselves through his dark bangs.

"My…" She took a mixture of mild amusement and pleasure at hearing his adorable little sounds. "You _are_ getting excited, aren't you?"

After their little bit of fun was over, she slid off his lap, watching him edge back behind his desk the way he was before. "Are you sure everything is ok with you, Chris?"

"Me? Sure it is." There was something in his voice and body language to suggest that everything was not ok. He had a habit of losing eye contact when he fibbed or kept something to himself.

"Are you sure you're not telling me porkies?"

Chris kept his gaze to the paper he was writing in, before swiftly darting it to Karen. "You're not the only person who's worried about Harry."

She frowned. "What do you mean? Has he told you something?"

"I marked a paper of his the other day." He explained, his expression becoming more perturbed. "He didn't get a single answer right."

She leant against his desk as he pulled himself out slightly from under it. That action prompted her to cast her gaze to his slender legs, which were spread out to draw attention to his hips. It was a sight _she _didn't mind seeing.

"I know things at home have been quite bad, but…I mean for him to not concentrate is unusual in itself."

She drew in a small sigh. "I don't think he's been really that focussed on what he's been doing in here."

He acknowledged her answer.

"I think he's given up, to be fair."

"Well that's not good." He pointed out. "You have to explain to him, you're his mother."

"Why don't _you_ go round and see him?" Karen snapped at him, prompting him to jump a little. "After having that fatherly talk with him when you gave him that medication that day."

"Karen, I had no intention of trying to be anything I'm not," he protested, "he wanted to talk to me, and that was fine. He wouldn't have found it that easy to talk to you, he wanted to be more private about it."

She shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to have a go at you. It's just been really stressful at home lately. What with having an extra little one to look after and after her being poorly as well…this with Harry is the last thing I need."

"Does he still feel quite bad, is that what it is?" Chris leant forward over his desk, his eyes sparkling in the low sunlight.

"I just…I don't understand him. I used to be able to read him like an open book, but now…" She suddenly came over very weighed down, which concerned him. "He told me I didn't love him anymore."

Outwardly he didn't appear to show any emotion, but inside there were feelings going on that even _he_ wasn't sure of.

"Can you _believe _that?" She smirked wryly. "After everything that's happened, and he could think something like that."

"I think he just feels left out still. After all, he _was_ the youngest before the baby was even _thought _of." He noted. "Give him some time and he'll stop all these thoughts and feelings."

She smiled softly, feeling reassured by his words. Even though he didn't have any past experience himself, she felt she could trust what he was saying.

"No offence to him, but he _is _quite a changeable kid." He admitted. "It'll take a while, but the resentment he has will go away, I promise you."

"Thanks for that." She placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing him there softly.

"Not a problem." He placed a hand on top of hers. "That's what I'm here for."


	22. Chapter 22

Chris went back home after work. It was deadly quiet when he got in.  
>Clara wasn't anywhere to be seen, and he fretted at the fact that she'd gone and broken her curfew yet again.<br>He checked his mobile, realising she'd left him a message.

"_WILL BE BACK LATER. DIDN'T GO FAR. LOVE U XX_"

Anger blazed within him. How _dare_ she pull off something like that? He had to put more of a leash on her, and he didn't mean a _literal_ one as such. He certainly had to control her before she did anything else like last time.  
>Goodness only knows what she'd attempt next.<p>

Clara didn't come back until late evening. She got in through the flat door using the duplicate key she'd been given, finding Chris standing not too far away, seemingly knowing she was coming back. He had his arms folded across his broad chest in a dominant stance. "I can explain."

"You'd _better_." He noted, his eyes hardening a little.

"I got a job in the city centre."

"Doing what exactly?" He knew the sorts of jobs that only consisted of night work. Unless she did twilight work at the local store, he was certainly more worried.

She shrugged. "Does it matter? I _earn_, surely you can be happy for me in that respect."

"You're my _daughter_," he pointed out, following her into her room as she went to unpack the bag she'd taken, "and I'm asking you to tell me."

She shifted about awkwardly on her bed as she fished out a tube of lip-gloss and a pair of glitzy earrings she'd been wearing. "You wouldn't like it if I told you."

"I'm _already _starting to not like it."

She shivered at the anger in his voice. She didn't want to hurt him, but she did have understated talents – why not show them? "You'll throw me out on the streets if I did that."

"I won't throw you out." Chris's voice flitted from angry to remarkably placid. How he did that she'd never know. "You know full well I wouldn't do that. But I have a right to know what you're getting yourself into, 'cause I really want you to stay here so we can be a proper family."

"And _vegetate_ all day?" Clara shot back, suddenly feeling infuriated with him. "It's ok for you, you've got money and you don't have to use anyone else's. But when it comes down to _me_, I don't have any money and I have to rely on you all the while."

"It's not like I _mind _forking money out for you. You shouldn't have to feel that way." He replied. "But I don't want you working late doing things I don't want you to."

She refrained from telling him. "I hate you." She stated icily. "I hate the way you control me and flit your emotions from one state to another."

He watched her get up off her bed. "I want you to stop working there – whichever club or bar you work in." He knew that when she told him she _hated _him, she didn't mean it. "Then we can go back to the way we were before."

"Stop saying things like that," she wept out, prompting him to come further into the room, "I know full well you don't love me and you don't want me here."

He knew that she wasn't playing mind games with him at all. She was, really and truly, very unwell. That was what worried him all the more that she'd found work. It wasn't that he didn't _want_ her to find and have a job, of course not. But it was the fact that anything could happen to her.  
>His worry definitely grew when she started to pack.<p>

"If you don't want me to have a job, then I may as well go."

"It isn't the fact that you've got a job that worries me though, Clara," he explained, "it's the fact that you're doing something that could potentially get you into trouble." He especially didn't like the idea of his little girl getting involved in something dangerous.

Clara shook her head, seemingly ignoring what Chris was telling her. She continued folding up her clothes and trying to make room for them in her bag, when she felt something wrap around her waist and found herself being pulled against an equally warm yet slightly larger body.

He tore her away from what she was doing and sat her down on the bed so as to stop her. "Now you listen to me," he firmly stated, "you are _not _going anywhere, you're staying here. So I want you to stop all of this."

She refused to even look into his eyes, even though he was perched right next to her on the bed.

"Clara, I don't want anything to happen to you, can't you see that?" His voice came out so expressively, revealing such pain and emotion within it that it shocked her inside. "If you were well enough, I'd let you do whatever you want, but I can't."

She felt his arm wrap around the back of her waist and pull her close against him. "I _am_ well enough…"

"You're not." He didn't care how often he had to drum that information into her; he was going to keep telling her till she accepted it. "However many times I'm going to get you to see that, I'll tell you again and again. You're not well enough to go anywhere without me knowing."

She pulled herself out of his hug and moved off the bed where he remained. "I'm not an invalid and you can't make me stay here all day. You can't do much about it anyway, 'cause you've got a _job _you go to day in and day out. I can go wherever I want during that time and you won't be able to stop me."

Chris remained quiet for some time. He had to admit that she had him there. He can't be there for her twenty-four seven, nor did he _want _to be. He knew full well that she wouldn't approve of him practically doing everything for her. "Then I guess there's only one thing for it."

Clara shook her head. "I can't go to a mental home. You can't make me if I refuse to go…"

"We should go to the doctor first," he ignored her protest, "so he can see for himself that you're unwell."

She said nothing. That wouldn't be so bad if he only took her to a specialist. Even if he decided the best plan of action would be to take her to a mental home, she _still_ wouldn't make things easy for either of them. Well, she'd happily sit through any tests the doctor would want to do with her, but she wouldn't let either of them take her somewhere she didn't _want _to.

"Ok?" He maintained a dominant stance, his eyes steadily fixed onto hers. "Shall we do that?"

She drew in a small sigh and nodded. That didn't mean that she was going to _like _what was going to happen or she was going to go along with it.

They both sat together in the surgery's waiting room the next morning. It wasn't that busy and he was surprised he managed to get a same-day appointment with the doctor he'd called out that time.

"He might not have to do very much with you," he reassured her, "he could well just wanna ask you a few questions but he won't do anything to hurt you."

Clara said nothing, but folded her arms across her chest. She was only going along to stop Chris from keeping on at her to see someone and at least satiate him in that respect.

When it was their turn to be seen, he pulled her up out of her sitting position. "Come on now," he urged her, "don't make things hard for either of us already."

She could only scowl at him, but that didn't make much of an impact. She allowed him to tow her to the doctor's room and hesitantly sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk.

"Well, well," the doctor leant further over his desk, "you don't look at all well, Clara."

Chris heavily sat down in the chair next to her.

"You look exhausted." He noted to him.

"I _feel _it."

Frowning, the doctor came out from behind his desk and placed a hand on the younger male's shoulder. "I can see what you've come to me about." He told him softly. "Give me a few minutes alone with her…take yourself outside and relax."

He nodded dimly and left Clara alone with him.

"Right then," he sat on the then unoccupied chair next to her, "let's see what's making you unwell."  
>After checking her vitals over, he went back behind his desk and took out a piece of paper from one of his drawers.<br>"What I want you to do now is go through each question and tick the most relevant box." He explained. "Then when you're done, give that form back to me and I'll have a talk with your dad."

After she'd done all that, she handed the form back to the doctor, who took it from her straightaway to go through the ticked boxes.

"Wait outside for a few minutes, Clara," he started softly, "and ask your dad to come back in."

She slowly got up off the chair, and went straight over to Chris, who was close to falling asleep in his chair. "Doctor wants to talk to you." She spoke bluntly, sitting on the one next to him.

He peered over at her, watching her fold her arms across her chest and seemingly stare into space. She'd done her bit.  
>After taking his place in front of the doctor in his room, he sat closer to him. "What did you do with her?"<p>

"I asked her to go through a form that I use for all patients exhibiting mental or anxiety disorders." He explained. "There's no clear way of saying this, but…"

"But what?" He lowered an eyebrow in concern. "What she has is quite bad, is that what you're saying?"

"She has a form of post-traumatic stress. It seems to be something that could be fairly deep-rooted," he noted gravely, "which means that she's had it for some time…before even meeting you. But it also means she'd need strictly controlled therapy."

"But I've seen the way she is," he protested, "and that's all stemming from the _shock_?"

"Everything considered, yes." The doctor nodded. "Post-traumatic stress can bring about all sorts of things – unnatural things. You've already said yourself that her behaviour's becoming more erratic, and if you find it hard to control her, then the only other thing that'd work is if she's taken to a more secure unit."

Chris drew in a small sigh.

"You don't seem convinced."

"It isn't that," he noted softly, "it's just that I know she won't take to the idea of being taken somewhere she doesn't wanna go."

"This is no longer on a voluntary basis." He pointed out. "This is compulsory. She's exhibiting signs where she's putting herself in danger."

He felt that hit him quite hard. It was almost as though he was saying that what he was doing had made her get into that state in the first place.

"I can call the unit explaining Clara's condition and for her to be admitted immediately." He continued. "What I would do for now is wait outside with her…don't tell her where she's going else she'll lose control. The unit will send out someone to come here and collect her. She won't know anything and it won't become apparent to her where she's going."

Chris sat next to Clara, who didn't even look at him when he did so.

"Why have we got to wait again?"

He knew he couldn't tell her the truth. "He wanted to go through your answers."

"I thought that was why he asked you back in."

He didn't expect her to catch him out so soon, if at all. "He's only making sure, that's all. I shouldn't worry."

She could sense something wasn't quite right with him. Ok, he was fairly tired from having to deal with her, but what he was exhibiting wasn't tiredness. It appeared to be more _nervousness_.

She watched his eyes dart this way and that, and that only raised her suspicions all the more. "He isn't going over my answers at all…is he?" She sharply got out of her chair, her eyes taking on a more expressionless look. She couldn't believe he was fibbing to her again, even if he was doing so for her best interests.

"Clara, you have to stay here." He carefully pointed out, not wanting to have to resort to pulling her back down or raising his voice to force her to do what he wanted her to. He knew that only made her worse.

"He's sending me away," she added, shivering slightly, "and you _agreed _to it."

"I didn't agree to it." He protested, looking to her. "He says it's better for you to go somewhere else."

"I was right all along," Clara wept out, "you _don't_ love me and you _don't _want me here."

"Clara…"

"I'm not staying here with someone who doesn't love me." She edged further away from him, disappearing from the surgery through the front entrance.


	23. Chapter 23

Chris chased Clara outside the surgery, managing to catch up with her, grab her by the sleeve of her jacket and pull her back to him. "You've got to come back in, right now."

"And you're going to _make _me, are you?" She taunted. "How are you going to do that exactly? Drag me or carry me kicking and screaming?"

"Either way," he replied firmly, "you decide."

She pushed him away from her. "Well that's not really the way you should be talking to me for a start."

"Clara," he protested dimly, "I don't wanna fight anymore. I just want you to go along with what the doctor is saying."

"He wants to send me away."

"'Cause I can't help you, that's why." He came closer to her. "What you've got is something I can't stop and it's something you can't stop either. The place where you'll go will help you, but by refusing to go you're not helping yourself."

"I don't _wanna _go."

"I know you don't," Chris took hold of her wrists, "but by going, you'll be doing the right thing."

"What, for you or for _them_?" Clara pulled herself away from him again and quickly disappeared out of sight.

He knew he couldn't keep pursuing her in that sort of way any longer and he had to go back inside.  
>He weakly sat back down where he was before and the doctor came over to him.<p>

"I've just called the unit and they're happy to take her…where _is _she?"

He shook his head dimly. "She found out."

"You _told _her?"

"She found out for herself. She put two and two together somehow." He looked to him sadly. "She ran off."

He nodded slowly. "The unit have reserved a bed for her for up to twenty-four hours, so you have to get her up there within that time. If not, you'll have to take her back here and the waiting list could be very long by then." He made to go back to his room. "I'll have to call the unit again and ask them to cancel the taxi that was going to come here, but you have to find her. There's no telling what she'll do in her condition."

Chris couldn't find Clara at all by the time he got back outside. There was no way of knowing which way she would've gone and he couldn't find himself driving down every single street he could think of to find her.  
>He decided to carry on to work and try to get hold of her by calling her. For all he knew, she could well be trying to cool off.<p>

"Clara, wherever you are…please call me back. I'm not going to do anything you don't want me to, but I want you to either call me back, go straight home or come and see me at work…ok?" He disconnected the call as Harry slowly came in. He placed his mobile not too far away from him on his desk. "Take a seat."

Harry took in the older male's appearance, noticing he looked slightly weighed down and sleepy. "You don't look so good, Sir."

He said nothing to his remark, and gave him back his paper with crosses all the way through it. "You wanna explain to me what happened there?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I still haven't been a hundred per cent."

"You weren't a hundred per cent in the _paper_, Harry, that's for sure." He leant further forward, inadvertently revealing two faint dark circles under his eyes. "I want you to do well. This isn't your usual standard."

"This isn't my strong point, I suppose."

"Well, no…" Chris cast his gaze onto a spot on his desk. "Sixty or seventy per cent I'm used to seeing from you, but not _zero_."

He drew in a small sigh. "I didn't really get myself ready for the paper the previous night."

"You mean things at home have still been a bit rough?" He wanted to cut him some slack. After all, things haven't been going brilliant between him and Clara and he figured they were both in the same boat. "You wanna do this one again then, in that case?"

Harry perked up a little. "Really? You'll let me do it again?"

"Sure." He gave him a blank paper. "As long as I have it back soon so I can go through it."

He thankfully took it from him and left the room.

It was turning into quite a cold night.  
>Chris was on his way back to the car when Karen's voice from behind stopped him.<p>

"Not starting to become a _hermit_, are you?" She noted teasingly, coming up to him.

"Oh. No…" He got his keys out. "Just been so busy lately."

She tilted her head in concern at his less than usual perky self. "Harry said you looked tired when he came to see you."

"He told you that?"

She nodded slowly. "I know we work together, but we _are _a couple as well, aren't we?"

"It's something I can't tell you." He decided that rather than lie about his and Clara's relationship any longer, he would directly tell her that it was as private as he could make it out to be. "I'm sorry, Karen."

"No, that's fine. There are only so many things couples talk to each other about, and what's concerning you is something you wish to keep to yourself." She agreed. "But if you want to tell me, you know that all you have to do is say."

He managed a small smile. "Sure."

She placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed him there comfortingly. "See you in the morning."

As soon as he got back into the flat, Chris was met with complete darkness. He felt slightly weighed down at the feeling of being alone again. He _presumed _he was alone as none of the main lights were on.  
>He heavily sat down on the sofa, trying to work out what his next move should be.<p>

Clara didn't have much time left till her bed was given to someone else and it was imperative to him that she got to the unit when the doctor instructed her to.  
>He knew he could do no more at his end as he'd already called her mobile and left her a message for her to get back. But what if she didn't <em>get<em> that message? What if something _happened _to her?

He snapped to. What could possibly have happened to her? She was old enough to fend for herself, however much he wanted to protect her on his own, and he knew that in all honesty she would be fine and she would come back to him when she felt good and ready. He then assumed it didn't matter if she'd forgone her bed at the unit, as he'd be able to control her for as long as he could.

He could only assume that she _had _well and truly gone and left him on his own, like she said she would do. Well, if that were the case, he'd better start stripping her bed and ensuring she'd taken everything with her…

What he was met with when he came into her room was her slender form lying in amongst the blankets. She couldn't be…no.

Going over to the bed, he softly swept her long, dark hair away from her face, allowing it to scatter across the blankets gracefully in waves.  
>He wasn't sure when she got to the flat or why, but he could only be <em>thankful <em>that she came back.

He stayed up for some time, deciding to sit down on the sofa with her bedroom door open as she slept.

It wasn't for some time that she stirred in amongst the blankets, and when she did her eyelashes fluttered gracefully like butterfly's wings beating through air. It was a pretty sight.

Leaning over her waking body, he tenderly swept a hand over her forehead.

"Dad…" She hazily mumbled, opening her eyes and peering up at him.

"Hey, sweetheart." He whispered softly.

Clara automatically threw her arms around Chris after sitting up in bed. Her action prompted him to come over slightly bemused, but he happily took her into a warm hug. "I thought you were someone else."

He inched closer to her, so that they could feel each other's warmth. He wanted to hear more. "Someone else like who?"

"_Him_."

He frowned at the fright in her voice and he slid a hand down her back, pressing her against him in order to stop her from feeling so frightened. He didn't want to throw question after question at her, deciding instead to let her talk in her own time.

"I would sometimes see him in my room at night," she started shakily, "he would perch on my chair by the bed when I'd be trying to sleep and just…I don't know. Watch me."

He frowned more at what she'd said.

"H-he didn't know I could see him, but I knew he was there. I could make out his larger shadow even though it was dark. I heard the chair squeak when he moved, so he had to have been there…"

He didn't really know what to feel at that time. He waited to hear more from her, but he realised he wasn't going to get any more if he pressed her.

Clara closed her eyes as he stroked her down her back. She felt the tears come. "D-dad…I didn't mean to hurt you. I love you…"

"I know you do…it's ok now." Chris felt slightly angry. He knew that he had to let it come and that he had to accept it. He didn't let go of her, giving her the impression that he held onto her even tighter.

"H-he would beat me too. Sometimes h-he would beat me so hard…"

He softly closed his eyes, swallowing hard. He felt slightly ill.

"I used to look in the mirror the day after to see the bruises and I would then try to cover them up…I didn't mean for it to happen, I promise you I didn't." She looked to him, tears shimmering in her eyes.

He said nothing for some time, choosing to keep his gaze to the blankets behind her and not look at her. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. To his own daughter…how could anyone…do that?

"Are you angry with me?" She couldn't feel completely at ease with the anxiety he was clearly exuding.

"I'm not angry with you." He felt her relax into him from the touch. "I wanna promise you one thing."

She nodded slowly. "Ok…"

"Whatever he did to you, it does not make me love you any less." He reassured her. It only prompted him all the more to want to look after her. "And I don't feel that taking you to a secure unit will help you."

She rested her head in the curve between his neck and shoulder. "You don't?"

"No." He felt her body's shivering ease against him. "The staff there won't know how badly you feel about the whole thing. They'll treat you, sure, but you won't get the same sort of help _I _can give you."

Clara nuzzled her nose in Chris's t-shirt, taking in that familiarly musky yet soothing scent. "I've never wanted to go to the unit," she admitted, "I've always wanted you to look after me."

"You know I would take care of you." He pulled himself away from her and helped her to lie back down in bed. "You feel that you can sleep a little bit better now?"

She felt warm and fuzzy inside as he cupped her face softly. She took hold of his wrist, caressing it at its joint. "Can you stay with me for a while?"

He smiled playfully. "I'm sure I can manage that."

It wasn't long before she felt nicely relaxed and sleepy. She drifted off into a deep sleep in amongst the blankets and he tenderly pulled them up over her slender body. "Sleep well, my love." He planted a soft kiss on her forehead as he pushed her dark hair back. "You'll feel better in the morning."


	24. Chapter 24

_A/N – Thanks for all R & Rs, very much appreciated! There's plenty more chapters on the way as they spring to mind!_  
><em>I absolutely adore playing on the idea of Chris being a dad – in my honest opinion I think he'd make a very good one because of the way he is!<em>

_So yeah, more to come! I promise!_  
><em>xXx<em>

Wednesday morning.  
>Clara awoke from in amongst the blankets, taking in a very appetising scent that was floating its way in through the door of her sun drenched room. It was something that made her feel quite relaxed and also made her stomach feel empty.<p>

"Thought I heard someone's tummy." Chris peered round the door, his bright blue eyes sparkling playfully. "I didn't know what you felt like, but I was up early enough to give you something before I left for work."

"Not if it's going to hold you up…"

"No, it's not a problem. I don't start till much later anyway. Actually," he sidled over to her bed and positioned himself on it, "I should rephrase that. I don't have a _set _till much later, so I can spend a lot more time with you."

She smiled a little. "I appreciate you wanting to spend more time with me, dad."

The 'dad' label still felt foreign to him in some way yet gave him a warm fluffy feeling inside. He should feel good about her labelling him in such a way but the unsure feeling he had hidden away only grew at how hesitant she sounded. "…Do I hear a 'but' coming into the sentence somewhere?"

"It isn't that I don't _like_ what you do for me," Clara explained, noticing his eyes glaze over in confusion, "'cause I _do_."

He shrugged. "Then what's the problem?"

"I just get the feeling that you're overprotecting me a little."

"Well, I feel that I _should_," Chris defended himself, "if you're ill."

"I know you feel that way, but I'm eighteen years old. I can look after myself."

"That's where you're wrong," he went to go out of the room so he could start to dish up, "I don't think you _can_."

She sadly gazed down at the blankets.

"What you've got is post-traumatic and I know someone who has a similar sort of condition to you." He stood by the room's door. "And it isn't an easy condition to treat, I can assure you."

She felt even _hungrier _at realising why he'd gone, and her stomach rumbled angrily at the thought of food.

After she'd eaten, she placed her empty plate on the nightstand next to her. "You know what the worst thing about all this is?"

He tilted his head in interest.

"I sometimes feel that I won't ever get any better."

"No," Chris wrapped an arm around her, "don't feel like that, sweetheart. You _will_ get better. The downside to post-traumatic stress is that it _does _feel like it goes on forever at the same intensity, but you'll find a way to make it a more liveable condition."

"_Liveable_?" Clara repeated anxiously.

He nodded slowly. "Post-traumatic stress doesn't fully go away, see. It does stay with you, but there are ways to deal with it so as to make you less aware of it."

"That makes me feel even _sicker_."

He felt guilty that she was made to feel so bad. What made him feel all the more weighed down was the sheer fact that _he_ was starting to feel bad himself. He didn't make her feel like that, but he wanted her to get better and it was hurting him inside. He was dealing with feelings that to him would've been foreign give or take a few weeks ago.  
>"Tell you what," he said after some time, "when I come home from work tonight, why don't we both go out somewhere, yeah?"<p>

She kept her gaze squarely down at the blankets. "Somewhere like where?"

"Anywhere you want," he softly smiled, "you decide." Ok, what he was suggesting was to give her a pick-me-up. It wasn't something he could necessarily keep up day after day, but he felt bad for seeing her so upset.

She perked up ever so slightly. At least she perked up _at all_. "Y-you mean you wanna _treat _me?"

"That's the general idea." Chris smirked playfully.

He came into work later that morning, going straight to Karen's room.

"Skiving again?" She teased as he came in.

He smirked at her teasing remark. "Well, I thought seeing as I'd caught up with all my marking, I had no reason to come in normal time till my first set."

She laughed at his matter-of-fact answer. "You don't have to explain yourself to me, Mr Mead." She sidled up to him, sliding her fingertips through his dark bangs. "You're in slightly early before your set starts, so I think you and I should spend a little quality time together."

"Oh, I see." He winked. "Been keeping up to date with my timetable, have you?" He wrapped his arms around her, driving her up onto her desk. "You're turning into a very naughty girl, Mrs Fisher."

"I do like to keep people," she brought him closer to her by pulling on the knot of his tie, "especially you, in check."

Chris straddled her leg with either of his, immediately going to unbutton her cardigan.

"Because _you_ are turning into a very naughty _boy_." Karen caressed the young male under his jaw with an index finger, prompting a soft gasp from him. "Oh, yes, a very, _very _naughty boy."

"What do you think you should do about it?" He asked her playfully, peeling her cardigan off her to reveal her sleeveless top underneath. "You said I'm a naughty boy, so maybe I need to be _punished_." He caressed her up her uncovered arms silkily.

"Oh, you _are_," she lapped her tongue along his lower lip smoothly, "and punish you I shall."

The two of them remained snuggled up together on the sofa with their arms wrapped around each other.

"What're you up to tonight?" She peered at him amorously, sliding an index finger up and down the nape of his neck.

He went to tell her everything, but then refrained from doing so. He _still_ didn't want to explain his relationship with Clara, however devoted he was to both of them.  
>"Nothing special." He fibbed, feeling <em>ever <em>so awful for not saying anything.

"Well…" She slid her other index finger up the middle of his sternum. "_I'm _not up to anything special and if _you're _not up to anything special, maybe the two of us should go back to mine together after work…" The tempting touch inched lower down his body as she'd unbuttoned his shirt all the way. "…Get a takeaway and then go to bed together. Does that sound good to you?"

Chris shivered excitedly from the contact as she traced a circle around the outside of his navel with that same finger. She'd obviously discovered one of his soft spots. "Ok."

Karen smiled naughtily. "I'd better let you go in that case." She shifted herself to the nearest end of the sofa to allow him to button his shirt back up. They didn't go all the way as they didn't feel they had enough time, but what they did was fun enough.  
>They didn't have to wait too long to do whatever they wanted anyway!<p>

She buttoned her cardigan up, still feeling tingles at where he'd ran his hands up her arms.  
>"Before I forget, we've got a meeting later on this afternoon."<p>

He pouted cutely. "It's that time again?"

"Afraid so." She laughed at his cute little pout. It was uncharacteristic yet adorable at the same time.

"I can't really think of anything to say." To be fair, he hadn't thought that much about it and he didn't realise how quickly the time had come for them to _have _a meeting in the first place.  
>With everything that had gone on between him and Clara and looking after her, he'd completely lost track with everything else.<p>

"I'm sure something will come to you." She stated. "I don't think there's _ever _been an occasion where you've had absolutely nothing to say."

"Actually, there _was_ something I wanted to talk to you about." He admitted. He'd had enough of brushing his relationship under the carpet any longer.

"Right now?" Karen was worried that he'd be too late to see to his set and start setting that up. "Are you sure you want to talk about that now?"

Chris then looked at the time. "I guess it can wait till we see each other after work." He supposed. It was something that could wait until then. "I'll see you at lunch then, yeah?"

She nodded softly, as he disappeared from the room. She still sensed chills from where he'd been touching her and the kissing they both shared…passionate yet gentle at the same time. To her, it was like…wow.

They met up at exactly quarter to one as they'd agreed to.  
>"Well, the weather's been good to us." He pointed out to her, tilting his head to the sun shining brightly through her room's window. "You wanna go out somewhere?"<p>

She smiled a little shyly. "People will talk about us if we do that."

He unlinked his arm from hers. "They won't now." He didn't feel comfortable expressing his feelings for her in front of any other members of staff. And she was right. They'd be the school's hot gossip if anyone found out what they got up to outside of work hours, and it wouldn't have been to _everyone's _liking.

Not in _Karen's _opinion, anyway. After all, she was dating possibly the most sought-after male in the building and she certainly felt conscious about other girls wanting to walk off with him.

"To anyone else, they'd just see us as friends." He explained quietly once they'd gotten outside and were quite far away from anyone who'd catch what he was saying.

"Friends who have sex together, you mean."

Chris raised an eyebrow. "Not in a _casual_ sense, though. And _no one _else knows about what we get up to, do they?" Hearing no further remark from her, he continued. "I just thought it'd be nice to go out for lunch as it's sunny outside – plus it'll take your mind off the meeting later."

She nodded in acknowledgement. "Well, that's very thoughtful of you."

They got into his car and drove off together.


	25. Chapter 25

The afternoon meeting was _incredibly_ boring.  
>Chris and Karen were sitting next to each other, catching each other's gaze out of the corner of their eyes and exhibiting a closeness that even <em>Tom <em>was aware of.

"There _was _something on the agenda I wanted to talk about." Tom eventually piped up, in order to break the silence that had fallen within the room. "I was thinking that as the kids have started back, we could set up some sort of party."

Chris shrugged. "We'd need a special occasion for that though, surely." In _his_ mind, who would ever think about organising a party for…well…simply _nothing _special?

"Well, the kids aren't exactly thrilled about starting back for a new term, are they?" He watched the younger male cast his gaze away dismissively. "Give them something to celebrate."

"Something like a late summer party, you mean?" Karen supposed.

"Along those sorts of lines, yeah." Tom felt a wave of relief wash over him at the realisation that _someone _seemed to agree with his little idea. "I think it'd be quite nice to set that up on a spot on the grounds one clear night."

She turned to Chris steadily. "It _does _seem like a good idea."

"Ok," he drew in a small sigh, "what sort of date are we looking at?"

After the meeting, Tom stopped him before they parted either way to go to their rooms. "Is there something going on between you and Karen, mate?"

"No, not that _I'm_ aware of." He expected him to notice the closeness they overtly exhibited throughout the meeting. "We're just friends, Tom…very good friends. I thought you knew that."

"Friends don't look at each other the way _you _two did all through that meeting." He replied. "Look, it doesn't bother me if you're both going out together, but try and keep it more discreet, yeah? You don't want people like Janeece or Grantley finding out."

"There's nothing going on between us." The younger male put forward even more clearly. "Absolutely nothing. We're just very good friends and that's all there is." And with that, he didn't want to say any more and sharply disappeared down the corridor to his room.

After work.  
>Chris went straight to Karen's room once he was sure everyone had cleared out of the building.<p>

"I thought you were going to show me up." She teased, as he came in and sidled up to her.

"Now would I do something like that?" He snaked his arms around her waist, drawing their bodies together so that he could kiss her.

She closed her eyes, giving in to his playful actions as their lips oscillated and their tongues slid against each other seductively. "Mmm…" She stroked him at the back of his head before withdrawing from him. "I think we should save that till after the takeout, don't you?" She suggested huskily.

"I have to quickly go home first." He explained. "But I _will_ come straight to yours after I've sorted one or two things out."

"Well I can always wait outside and we can go back to mine in my car." She offered. "That's if it was a fleeting visit back to yours…"

"As good as."

Chris went back to his place in his car, whilst Karen drove to his in hers. He quickly went to her before going in. "I won't be long, I promise you."

"I trust you." She smiled softly. "Now get yourself inside."

"Dad," Clara was already dolled up to go, meeting his guilt-ridden gaze as he came in, "don't you wanna get ready to take me out?"

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart." He took on a more weighed down appearance at seeing the amount of effort his little girl had put in to make herself look nice for him. "Something came up and I can't take you out tonight." He noticed her expression turn from excited and happy to a stonier one. "But I can take you out tomorrow night instead, and I promise to you that if anything _does _come up then…"

"You _promised_." She noted stonily. "You said you'd take me out tonight and now you're not. Why even _leave _it this late anyway?"

"I _know_," he admitted guiltily, "I should've let you know sooner and I feel bad enough for having to let you down like this…I'm really sorry."

"You're going to see…_her_, aren't you?" She assumed. "So seeing her is more important than going out with me…your own _daughter _who you haven't seen in eighteen years?"

He took her hands with his. "You've got every reason to be annoyed with me, and I don't blame you for feeling so. But I _will_ promise to take you out tomorrow night. I will not break this promise to you."

He felt awful when he saw tears shimmering behind Clara's piercing blue eyes, and he caressed her over the insides of her wrists with his thumbs. "Be good for me and I'll be back soon, ok? I love you." He planted a soft kiss on her forehead, and left her alone in the flat.

Karen saw Chris come into her car at the front passenger side. "Got things sorted?"

"Yeah…all sorted out now."

They drove off together and went back to her place.

All through the takeout they shared between themselves, she couldn't help but feel a slight sadness come over the young male. "Are you not that hungry?" She was surprised that he'd even lost his appetite. That never usually happened to him and it wasn't a good sign when it _did _happen.

He drew in a small sigh, deciding to give up tilling the rice with his fork. "I think I should tell you what I wanted to say."

"Sure," she lowered her fork as a sign that she was ready to listen, "talk away."

"I took in a girl a few weeks ago." He explained slowly, noticing her bemused expression. He knew she was probably thinking all sorts. "She's my _daughter_. I wasn't even aware she existed and she's now eighteen years old."

"Wow." She breathed faintly. "But…surely you were too young to have fathered her. You're not that old yourself."

"I was thirteen when I made my girlfriend at the time pregnant." He went on. "I didn't know anything about it, and it was a casual thing between us. We split up not long after we did that and it was only one day I was driving by after work and I saw this small person huddled up under a bus shelter."

Karen tilted her head in slight concern.

"I couldn't leave her there, and although I didn't know who she was at the time, there was something between us I sensed. It was a very strange feeling, and I can't really describe it, but it was there." He noticed she'd come over rather placid.

"I let her stay the night and she told me everything that confirmed she'd been looking for me and that she was mine. I said she could stay with me, I wasn't going to let my own daughter go back onto the streets."

"No," she softly agreed, "that wouldn't be right."

Chris sat back on the sofa. "That said, she started behaving oddly…falling out with me, developing self-harming thoughts…I didn't know how to control her. I managed to now…sort of, but I took her to a doctor and he told me she's got a form of post-traumatic stress, like what you have." He cast his gaze down onto the lounge floor.

"He wanted me to send her away…I just couldn't bring myself to do that. After all these years of not knowing her, why should I send her somewhere I may not be able to see her for _another _few years?"

"You can't think negatively like that," she placed a hand on his shoulder, "mental homes can do really incredible things for very ill people. She might not have had to be in there for very long."

"The thing is," he came over more weighed down, "the trauma she was subjected to has run very deep. My ex's partner, or more simply put, her _mum's _partner, hurt her."

"Hurt her in what way?" She moved her hand to his back, stroking him there softly.

"He _beat _her…sometimes till she passed out."

Karen slowed the stroking at his back so it became more soothing. "How about I clear this away and then we can go to bed together? Maybe get some sleep…"

"I don't know…" Chris felt like he should really go back to his flat and try to make it up with Clara. He still felt bad for letting her down and he felt _far _from disposed to consider having sex.

"See how far it goes." She suggested. "We don't have to do anything you don't want. If you don't feel like having any fun, then we won't. But I think once you relax after an hour or so, you'll start to feel better."

He drew in a small sigh, feeling his ribs ache at the anxiety.

"You've just talked through something that'd been wearing you down for some time," she added, "and it's made you tired. I think I should take you to bed so you can have a few minutes to recharge."


	26. Chapter 26

Karen drove Chris back to his place after their little bit of fun in bed.

"Thanks for the lift back."

"My pleasure." She smiled playfully, leaning forward so that she could slide her finger up the side of his neck. "Or should I say…_our_ pleasure?"

He secretly drew in a sigh as he got out his flat's key.

"You don't seem happy."

"No, I am, but…" He looked to her sadly. "I was meant to take Clara out tonight instead of coming round to see you."

She came over slightly staid. "So why didn't you?"

"'Cause I wanted to tell you about her." He explained, his eyes fixed onto hers through the darkness, almost like cats' eyes. "God only knows what she _now _thinks of me."

"She can't think anything bad of you." Karen reassured him. "Chris, you've done so much for her…you _adore _her. How can she not feel the same way about you?"

Chris swallowed hard, making it crystal clear to Karen just how affectionate he was towards his little girl.  
>"I can't tell you how much she means to me." He effusively noted. "That's why when the time comes for me to let her go…"<p>

She nodded in acknowledgement. "…You're going to find it hard to."

"She's the only daughter I have, Karen," he added, "you can see why I feel for her the way I do."

She came closer to him, placing a hand on his arm and squeezing his bicep through his jacket. "You're an incredible person."

He felt a small stab in his chest, but it wasn't a particularly painful sensation. It felt heavier…fuzzier…and foreign. He leant further forward and kissed her on the lips. "So I guess I shall see you tomorrow then."

She smirked, and squeezed the firm muscle again. "Take good care of her now."

He went into the flat after she drove off and he stood in the doorway to Clara's room. He felt _something_, and he wasn't sure what it was. It didn't feel bad, however…it felt very good, and the heavy fuzzy feeling was still there. Was it welled-up emotion? He still wasn't sure, but he felt that he _had_ to be there for her…_all the time_. But at _her _age, was it something she would readily welcome?

He drew in a small sigh, going over to her and perching himself beside her on her bed. He softly drew her long hair back away from her face, allowing it to trail prettily over the blankets. If only there was some sort of _sign_…

She stirred slightly in amongst the bedclothes, inching into a more relaxed position next to him and sleepily placing a hand on his thigh. That sent shocks up through his hip into his spine. It was unexpected, but…nice.

Clara moved her legs outwards, waking up to find Chris peering down at her from his sitting position by her head. She was glad to realise that the lights that were turned down to a soft dimness didn't give her a headache as she came to. "Dad…?"

"Hey, sweetheart." He placed his nearest hand against her forehead. "How do you feel?"

"Tired, sick and weak." She replied. She closed her eyes as a wave of guilt crashed over her at the thought of what had happened earlier between them. "I'm sorry about what I said earlier."

He shook his head softly. "Don't worry about it – you had every right to be annoyed at me. I made a promise to you and I broke it."

She relaxed as he allowed his thumb to graze against her forehead soothingly. "How did your date go?"

He shrugged. "I only wanted to tell her about you."

"Y-you _told_ her about us?" She made to sit up, only for him to make her lie back down. Even if she felt awake enough to get up, it was hardly at a time either considered to be _early_.

"Relax," Chris took hold of her shoulder and squeezed her there, "she's fine about it. Everything turned out ok."

Clara shivered a little. "I feel a little cold."

He looked more concerned. "You want me to get another blanket for you?"

"I-if it's not too much trouble."

"No, it isn't." He disappeared from the room and re-emerged with a softer, thicker looking blanket. He sat next to her on the bed and carefully slid the warm fabric over her shoulders.

"What did she say when you told her?" She felt a glow inside when he started to rub her quite vigorously in order to get the blood to her skin.

"Not a lot really." He explained honestly. "She's pretty much in favour of me looking after you."

"Really?"

"She understood why I didn't wanna force you back out on the streets." He looked to her tenderly. "You wouldn't have wanted me to do that if I didn't accept you, would you?"

She shrugged. "I didn't know _what _to think really. I didn't think you would throw me back out."

"No?" He smirked to himself. "What makes you say that?"

She flitted her eyes to his. "I guess that when I first saw you, you didn't strike me as the sort of person who would do that."

He raised an eyebrow at her answer. "Bearing in mind that you didn't exactly _know_ me at that time, that's quite strange." He knew that a fairly well known saying was to never judge people before you get to know them, but there was something Clara had tapped into to suggest that he _was _a generally nice person, even on the outside.

"Thank you for what you're doing for me." She placed a hand on top of his, caressing the soft, dewy flesh at the back of it.

"You shouldn't have to thank me." Chris pointed out. "You're family now."

"Just out of interest," she gazed into his soft blue eyes, "how old _are _you?"

"Thirty-one."

Clara frowned. "That only puts you at thirteen when _I _was born."

"Yeah…" He peered down at the blankets quietly. "I wasn't really father material at that age."

"Don't talk daft." She prised his gaze off the blankets by tilting his head back up to meet her eyes. "You would've made a _brilliant _dad, however old you were."

He came over slightly modest. "That's nice of you to say, but…at that age, you don't tend to _think _that way."

"I don't blame you for leaving my mum when you did." She went on. "And I don't love you any less."

Chris came over even more modest. "I guess that's a good thing…" He relaxed a little more when she cupped his face softly. "You should get some sleep." He noted dimly.

"I think you should do the same." She admitted, noticing his eyes had taken on a darker, more tired-looking appearance. It didn't help to see faint dark circles developing under his orbs and it was a sight she _rarely _saw.

"My first priority is with _you_." He explained softly. In other words, he didn't care how tired or worn down _he_ felt, he was more worried about _her_.

"I know it is," Clara spoke tenderly, "but I'd hate for you to feel tired in the morning from looking after _me_."

He nodded a little, swallowing hard. He figured that she would be fine on her own, and if she wanted his help with anything she'd let him know. "O-ok." He agreed slowly. "But if you want help with anything…let me know."

"I'll be fine." She smiled reassuringly. "Just get yourself to bed now."

The next morning.  
>Chris came to check up on Clara, finding her still asleep. He swept a hand over her forehead, watching her stir under the bedclothes and allow her eyes to flicker open and gaze up at him. "Morning." He perkily noted.<p>

She smiled softly at him as she sat up in bed and leant on her arm. "Morning."

"I'll be heading off to work soon," he preened a few stray ends of her hair, "so I'll have to leave you here for a few hours."

She shrugged casually. "Not a problem. Will you be staying on later tonight?"

"I might be. But I can always let you know if I'll be later back tonight, ok? No more broken promises this time."

Karen came in much earlier that morning and so had surprised the young male as he half-expected the door to still be locked. He ended up stumbling in as a result.  
>She giggled a little at his graceless fall.<p>

"Trying to catch me out or something?" He came back with, in an attempt to recover _some _dignity. "You're starting to come in earlier than me."

"Well, I'd spent so much time looking after the little one," she watched him sidle up to her desk, "she was keeping me up into the early hours of the morning."

Chris frowned. "That doesn't sound good. That's not even _your _job."

"Jess spends more time round her friends' houses than she does with her own _child_." She felt glad that he was there although she wanted to know why he was. "I shouldn't be going on about what's going on at home, why are _you _here?"

He felt bad for wanting to take time off when he'd heard about how bad _she'd _had it. "Just…wanted to see how you are, really."

Karen smiled a little. "Chris, I'm not exactly _unwell_…"

"No," he leant against the radiator by her desk, "but you're still undergoing trauma and with Jess disappearing the way she is, it isn't good."

She peered at him, unable to resist gazing admiringly at his slender hip area. She felt like getting out of her chair, going over to him and putting her hands on him.

"It's a pity things with Jess's baby aren't really working out." He admitted apologetically. "If it were up to me, I'd happily take her if she didn't _reprove_ of it, but I've got my _own _daughter to take care of now."

"How are things with her?"

Chris's eyes took on a softer appearance. "She's ok from what I've seen so far."

Karen nodded in acknowledgement. "Well, if you want any time off to look after her, you know that all you have to do is ask." She could understand if he was having any problems with taking care of Clara on his own, being the fact that he was a single parent.

"Sure." He came over slightly shy. "If you were having problems with the baby, I don't mind helping out for an hour or so tonight."

_Yes_. That was exactly what she'd _hoped_ he'd say, and it wasn't so that she could have a bit of _fun _with him! "As long as you're not doing anything with Clara…"

"No," he smiled softly, "I've been meaning to take her out but it can wait. And she knows about you and I."

"Really?" She tensed up a little. "What has she said?"

"Nothing that'd worry you." He took in her tense posture. "Relax. I've got a feeling she'll _love _you when you see her."


	27. Chapter 27

Later that night.  
>Chris came over to Karen's as soon as he'd locked up. "Did someone order a babysitter?" He teased as she opened the door to him.<p>

"A _sexy _one at that." She winked, taking him straight through to the baby's makeshift room, which hadn't even been decorated.

"Wow," he noted the lifeless walls, "don't tell me you're planning on leaving it like this."

She shrugged. "Jess says that she'll do it."

"…And she said this how many days ago?" He smirked knowingly. "It isn't something I can envisage her taking on – and anyway, it's better to do it when the baby's on the way. I can imagine her getting high on paint fumes, and you don't want a baby high on paint fumes."

"Then what do _you _suggest?"

He tilted his head to one side pensively. "Well…"  
>His train of thought was disrupted when the baby cried herself awake in her cot.<p>

Karen laughed a little. "At least you didn't have to wait long to do anything." She watched him scoop her up into his arms and cradle her.  
>She was blown away by how proficient he seemed to be – how to hold her and how to react to her squirms and cries.<p>

Chris remained still and quiet with her, simply holding her till she quietened herself back down again. "Does she not have a normal babysitter?"

Karen shook her head. "The running costs of having another mouth to feed hasn't left us with enough money to _afford _one."

"That's not good, is it?" He still heard a bit of noise coming from the little one, and he decided to hold off putting her back to bed. "You can't just leave her here on her _own _during the day."

"That's where Jess comes in," she noted indignantly, "or should I say, is _meant _to."

He gave her a knowing look. "So it's fair to say she's not really doing a good job." He was surprised at how light she was, and a terrible thought crossed his mind. "I don't wanna come across as some sort of doctor, but when was the last time she'd eaten anything?"

She had to think for a few minutes. "Jess usually feeds her around half-past twelve and then gives her another lot at four. Why?"

"'Cause she feels awfully light for a baby at her age."

She shrugged. "She _is _still a newborn though."

"But take in her general size." He pointed out. "She's not exactly tiny, and they _do_ tend to fill out more as they get older."

She knew he was right – and he wasn't even a _professional_! "You're suggesting she's _starving_?"

"Well, close to that, anyway." Chris seemed more worried that even _Karen_ didn't notice – and she'd had _three_ of them. "Either she's not being fed at the appropriate times or she's not being fed _enough_. That could be why she's a little on the sulky side and won't settle."

A few minutes later, Karen managed to excavate a small bowl and spoon, and then _eventually _find a small jar of food amongst the larger ones.

"Give it here." He offered. "I'll try at getting her to take it – that's if she's been very fussy around mealtimes."

"I haven't really noticed." She admitted. "Jess usually feeds her when I'm in another room."

"Oh, good," he unscrewed the small jar, "so now you can see for yourself." He tipped the jar's not very appetising contents (which didn't seem a lot to most adults) into the small bowl and used the spoon to mash it up.

She went to get her and lifted her out of the cot, squirming and screaming till she would proverbially turn blue in the face. "Maybe I woke her."

"No," he stayed where he was, "she's doing it to make a point."

She set her down in her chair, tying one of her bibs around her neck and making a single bow at the back. "Make sure you be good to Chris." She told her quietly.

"She will," he finished reducing the jar's contents to a mushy pulp, "won't you, sweetie?"  
>He spooned the first lot and made to move it into her mouth. He wasn't going to try the overworked 'here comes the airplane' trick. She only turned away. "Don't you want this?"<p>

Karen almost felt a little ill when she watched him take it instead. If that was his way of getting her to eat it, well…that was up to him.

"It's not as bad as you might think." He laughed. "They should do bigger sized jars for adults."

"Enough messing about," she felt her stomach settle down again, "can you get her to take it now?"

"Let's play again." Chris had another go with her, realising that she cocked her head in mild interest. Maybe what he did had worked. "This'll make you big and strong." He stated persuasively, his eyes sparkling in the low-setting sunlight.

She allowed him to slide the once-again filled spoon into her mouth that time, and no protest came from her as she ate it.

"See?" He looked to Karen positively. "No problems."

She breathed in mild shock.

"You're a good little girl," he wiped her mouth that was smeared with sauce after she'd eaten it all, "aren't you?"

"I-I'm not sure what it is that you did," she started dimly, "but whatever it is, it _worked_."

"Well, she'll be happy now that she's been fed _properly_." He turned round in the chair he was sitting on to look at her. "I take it Jess didn't feed her the full amount?"

"Does it _say _to?"

"Well…" He picked up the small jar and read the back of it. "It does say in quite large writing to do so."

She fished out a small feeding bottle and filled that with warm milk. She gave it to him.

"Oh, I see." Chris smirked playfully. "I _must_ be doing that good a job." He took it from her and carefully slipped it into her mouth, finding that she took _that _no problem.

"Either that, or she's being very well-behaved for you."

Once she'd been fed, he took the almost-drowsy baby back to her cot and set her back down in amongst the blankets.

Karen watched him from the makeshift room's doorway, marvelling at the sheer proficiency he clearly had. "That's…_incredible_."

He turned to look at her. "What is?"

"I've never seen her feed like that and fall asleep so quickly."

He shrugged. "Nothing to it." He stroked the little one down her front with an index finger in a paternal way. Her response was a contented squirm as if to request for more of the same. "I'm just happy to help."

She came closer to him, unable to get over what had happened. He didn't have any kids of his own, nor did he have any younger brothers or sisters, which would've brought on the proficiency _he_ so clearly displayed. So what _was_ it? "She obviously _likes_ you." That was as clear as crystal, but that was the first time Jess's baby had ever _seen_ him. "Maybe _you _could be her babysitter from now on."

He looked back over to the sleeping mass, drawing in a small sigh. Sure, he felt close to her, but that was only because _he_ was there when her real mother wasn't. That didn't make his position any more exceptional. "I guess I _could _be, but…" And he wasn't expecting Karen to say anything else.

"…There's a problem?"

"Not so much a _problem_, but…" Chris came over to her and took her hands with his. "I _do_ still have a daughter of my own, and if I spend too much time with _this_ one – not that I don't _want _to – I might neglect Clara in the process." And that _has _happened on more than a few occasions. He didn't want to have to keep driving after her after she decided to go clubbing on her own or even have to pull her out of a swimming pool.

She nodded slowly.

"And that sort of thing's happened too much, to be fair." He went on. "I didn't wanna have to find myself raising or looking after one of my own, only to have to keep pulling her out of predicaments all the time. I just want a normal relationship with my own daughter."

"I'm sorry, Chris." She looked to him apologetically. "I didn't mean to force the issue about you being her babysitter, but you're just so _good _at it."

He smirked wryly. "All I did was feed her and put her to bed."

"But those are the sorts of things Jess would struggle with." She decided not to labour the point anymore. She knew that it wasn't because he didn't _want _to babysit her – it was because he had too much of a commitment with Clara.

"That aside, something really ought to be done about her room." He added on a more positive note.

Karen smiled a little to herself at envisaging the young male smearing paint over grey walls whilst perched on a foldout ladder. And it wasn't his _brushwork _she would've been interested in.

"We can always do it together." He suggested casually.

She raised an eyebrow in anticipation. Did she _hear_ that right? Y-you're offering to help decorate her room?"

"I mean it's probably worth doing it when Jess isn't here. After all, she still knows nothing about us and it'd be nice for her to think that _you_ did it for her and not _both _of us."

She had to control her excitement at the following thoughts entering her head. "But we don't have any paint."

"Oh, we can sort that out." Chris's eyes sparkled in the late-afternoon sunlight. "And to keep her from knowing anything about it, it'd be worth keeping the paint in the back of the car and to then maybe send her away somewhere…does she usually go anywhere during the weekend?"

Karen didn't have to wait long to fulfil those exciting fantasies that sprung to mind. "I know that she _does _go to a few mates' houses."

"Well, then," he perked up, "get her to spend the weekend around one of theirs while we both stay here and do _this_."

"She might turn round and say that she might feel young doing something like that."

He knew what she was getting at. Spending the weekend around a mate's house would be something _schoolgirls _did together. "Give her extra incentive for her to go then." He pointed out. "Say that it's to help her get away from looking after her little one for a bit…you could even go as far as to say that she can pretty much do whatever she wants as she won't have to look after her."

"Ok." She agreed. "I think that could work."


	28. Chapter 28

"You want me to get away from here for the weekend?" Jess reiterated incredulously later that night over tea. "Is there a _catch _to all of this?"

Karen shook her head. "No catch whatsoever." She made to gather all of their empty plates. "I just think it'd be nice for you to get away for a bit and not have to worry about anything for a few days. That's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?"

"Well, no." The redhead admitted. "I just don't understand. Now that I've got a baby, it'd be normal for you to want me to stay here and look after her."

"I'm giving you the chance not to do that for once." She explained. "I know how tiring it gets looking after a little one, and so spending a few days away from that will help you."

She slowly nodded. "Ok." She drew in a small sigh before getting down from the table.

At the same time at his place, Chris settled down with Clara on the sofa. "How do you feel?"

She moved into a more comfortable position against him. "A bit better."  
>She glowed inside as he wrapped his arms around her protectively. She nestled closer into his body, finding him so warm and soft. She could've fallen asleep like that as she felt so secure.<br>For a small person, he didn't half make her feel safe.

"You wanna sleep?" He noticed her breathing had slowed against him and she was snuggling up to him more. They were telltale signs that she was getting tired. "If you do, I can take you to bed."

She nestled her had against his broad chest. "But you feel so warm and cuddly…"

He smiled to himself and pulled her closer against him. He had to admit that even _he_ felt warm inside at the closeness between them. He relaxed a little more when he felt her hand rub him over his flat stomach. He pressed his lips to her forehead, taking in the relaxing yet fresh scent of her hair.  
>"I hope you don't mind," he started hazily, "but I was going to go to Karen's place after work tomorrow."<p>

Clara closed her eyes, feeling the afterglow of his kiss. "I know what for." She smiled. "Don't let _me _stop you."

"Oh, no. No…nothing like that." He smirked a little. "I offered to help out with something, that was all."

"We both know what that is." She teased some more.

After work the next day.  
>Karen took her and Chris back to hers and then opened the boot of her car. "Well, lucky for us these went unnoticed." She accentuated 'these' by tilting her head towards the several cans of paint that they bought together earlier that day during their lunch hour. "You think she'll like the colour?"<p>

"Sure she will." He didn't know why she was so unsure at the last minute. They both decided on a colour between themselves after much squabbling, so why wouldn't the _baby _like it? "You should learn not to worry so much."

"You'll be pleased to know that the house is completely kid-free." She noted insinuatingly. To her, that basically meant they had the place to themselves and so they could get up to _anything _they wanted.

He didn't catch on to it. He either didn't catch on to that or was keeping his own thoughts to himself. "So we'll do it in no time then."

They both got into the house with the very heavy cans of paint, placing them down on the floor of the baby's room.

"Now what?" She wanted to know.

"Now," Chris started, "we take her somewhere she won't get high on paint fumes." He lifted the little one out of her cot, wrapping her up in his arms as she started to cry.

"Did you scare her?" Karen joked, watching him try to get her to settle again. Although she knew there was nothing scary about the young male.

He ignored her joke, rubbing her down her back and holding her close to him. He knew that close contact would get her to relax.  
>Within a few more seconds she went back to sleep and he set her down on the sofa, placing her in a secure position.<p>

She moved everything else from the unpainted room into hers, leaving the place completely blank.

He came back into the room and unfolded the ladder. "When do you wanna start thinking about eating?"

She looked to him incredulously. "Don't tell me you're hungry _already_?"

"Well…my tummy does feel a little empty."

She smirked playfully, after hearing it rumble angrily. "Your tummy's _always_ empty."

"I can hold on for a bit," he admitted, "but I don't wanna go the whole night without _eating _anything."

"I can always go out and get a takeout later if you want."

"If that's ok…"

Karen went out before the pair of them got _too_ dirty, and came back a few minutes later. "I didn't want us to end up feeling _too _full up, so I went out to the chippie. We can share it between us."

The sight she was met with almost made her lose it.

Chris had taken off his long-sleeved top in an attempt to keep cool. He wore a t-shirt underneath, so it wasn't as though he'd rendered himself half-naked.

What set her off was the fact that she could see his slender yet very powerful-looking arms, and if that wasn't bad enough, she could make out the defined contours of his shoulder blades under the t-shirt's dark fabric.  
>He didn't exactly make a start with painting as such, but he merely took his t-shirt off in anticipation of getting warm.<p>

"You didn't have to start without me, you know." She managed to regain her composure from the tempting sight, and set about getting some forks.

"It wasn't any trouble." He reassured her, prising open one of the cans of paint. "It was going to be very hard work opening these, anyway."

She came back with two forks. "So you're saying I would've struggled to open things like that, are you? I'd be careful what you say in future."

"Well, sometimes these can get quite stiff."

Karen smirked to herself. If she probed certain areas of his body, she could've said the same about _that_! "And that'd be no problem for a person of _your_ abilities." She commented, taking hold of his nearest bicep and squeezing the soft yet firm flesh at the muscle. Boy, how good did that feel.

She had to be careful she didn't touch him like that again, else who knew _what'd _be going on between them!

"Thanks for going out to get us something." Chris noted thankfully. "I wasn't sure for how long I'd be able to manage without eating anything."

"Of course," she smiled softly, "you're going to have to keep your strength up as you're a growing boy, aren't you?"

He smirked at her as if to say 'very funny'. "I guess one of us does the top and the other does the bottom." He waited for a comment from her. "And don't get any ideas, you dirty girl."

"We can do _that _much later." She winked.

Once they finished the takeout between themselves, he volunteered to take on the top half of the walls and he got on the uppermost step of the ladder.

Karen stole a few looks up at the young male, allowing her gaze to move up under his t-shirt when it came away from his leant-over position. She half-expected there to be a small spare tyre from what he'd eaten, but he was working so flat out that the fat simply burnt off him.

It certainly answered her question when Chris had to stop at one point and peel off his t-shirt – right in front of her.

Her eyes almost popped out of her sockets at the overwhelming sight. She watched him drop the sweat-laden top onto the floor from his height, only for it to fall into a less than tidy heap. Her gaze fixed onto the toned pelvic muscles, which sat above the waistband of his trousers and slightly below his flat stomach.

"Don't think I can't see you." He continued moving his brush across the blank wall. "I hope you haven't got a certain _activity _on your mind, Mrs Fisher."

Oh, how he was _tempting_ her like that! How could she _not_ look? How could she _not_ want to touch him? Surely one touch wouldn't hurt…  
>She slid up behind him, as he was only right next to her. She placed her hands on his backside, taking in its firmness.<p>

"I _knew_ you were feeling like that." He smirked, not at all put off by the fact that she was groping him in such a way. "I could have you done for assaulting a member of staff, you know."

"Outside of work hours?" Karen assumed, smiling naughtily. "I don't think that'd wash with the board somehow."

"I hope it wasn't down to something I _did_." Chris winked, tilting his hips to one side in a provocative manner. "Once this is all done, we can maybe _do_ something together."

They were both on the last wall together and she was trying to focus on nothing more than the painting – which was very hard to do when she had such a young, fit, athletic male a few inches next to her.

She noticed he was sweating. Not _overtly _so, but enough for some of it to catch the ceiling light in the room. She could make out a considerably sized bead of sweat slide down the middle of his chest, past his flat front and then descend into the shallow recess of his navel. She couldn't help but think how lucky that bead of sweat was!

"Well, despite your perving over me," he stated eventually, "we managed to get the first coat done in one night. So I think now we should leave that to dry…"  
>He made to dismount the ladder when he noticed Karen at the bottom of it.<br>Her eyes had a naughty glint to them.

"I know what we should do now." She suggested huskily, placing her hands on his hips and sliding her thumbs over the sides of his waist once he reached the penultimately bottom step. "Now that we're done with this room for now, we should take this to _another_ room…"

She allowed him to fully get down from the ladder but then took hold of his arm and towed him into her room.  
>She pushed him down onto her bed, sliding herself on top and pressing her lips to his.<p>

"Have the paint fumes made you a bit high?" His joke was finely cut off when she slid her tongue up along the length of his crab ladder. He drew out a submissive whimper and she closed her eyes at the adorable sound he made. She knew she was exciting him and that in turn excited _her_.

She started to unbutton his trousers, sliding her thumbs under their waistband and allowing them to graze the sensitive contours of his pelvis. "If you hadn't have tempted me like that, I may not be doing this with you."


	29. Chapter 29

"Mmmm…" Karen mumbled hazily, feeling pleasure squeeze itself out of her body. "That felt so good."

Chris had come over very sleepy, as he felt his excitement taper off in waves. He'd never felt anything as good as that before. His excitement certainly had no way of going when she made light circles around his navel.

She leant over him, raking her fingertips through his slightly sweat-dampened bangs. "I think it's fair to say I _had _you." She smiled playfully, enjoying the interesting blends of blue in his eyes. They looked even more colourful during times of pleasure.  
>She moved her fingers from his bangs down to his flat stomach. She grazed the soft flesh along his crab ladder, down to one of his hips.<p>

He closed his eyes and softly gasped at the touch. "Y-you really shouldn't tease me like that."

"Oh, and why's that?" She tilted her head in mild amusement.

"'Cause it'll only make me do more naughty things," he slid on top of Karen and straddled her, "and you don't want that, do you?"

She shrugged, placing her hands on Chris's spread thighs. "I _might_ want it if _you _do."

He laughed a little. "You're like a _rabbit_."

"And you're not?"

They both heard his mobile go off, and he would've switched it off if it weren't for the fact that Clara was calling him.

"What's wrong, love? Can't you sleep?" He assumed once he answered. He didn't have a quick fix over the line for her to sleep if that were the case.

"I-I've had a nightmare."

He sharply sat up as Karen sat up behind him, wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him at his shoulder blade. "You want me to come back?" He knew it wasn't good when Clara had nightmares, as she usually kept herself awake all night.

"Not if it's too much of a problem."

"It isn't, sweetheart. It's _never _a problem if you're unable to sleep. I'll be over as soon as I can, ok?" He disconnected the call and looked to her helplessly. "I have to go to her."

"Is she ok?" She frowned a little. "She sounded _frightened _on the line."

"She has real trouble sleeping," Chris admitted faintly, "and once she wakes up she won't go back to sleep. What she has is terrible, Karen. It stops her from working properly."

"We'd make a _right _pair then." She quipped.

"I don't know what more to suggest." There was a hint of despair in his voice, which Karen tried to alleviate by caressing the sides of his waist with her fingertips. "If she won't go to a mental home, I'm really lost as to how to help her."

"The bonding you've done with her," she started, "does _that _help?"

He shrugged. "Seems to." He noted loosely.

"To be fair, the second coat won't take us that long to do." She pointed out. "If I take you back tonight, you can stay with her up till tomorrow night, when we can get on with that."

He nodded. "That could work. I'll have to make sure she sleeps quite well tomorrow night in that case!"

Clara remained shivering in bed when she heard the flat's front door open and then close. She kept herself within the warm bedclothes as footsteps steadily approached outside her door.

"Clara?" A familiarly paternal voice came out quite soothingly. "You still awake, love?"

The door opened and Chris's slender form stood in the doorway.  
>She could make out his bright blue eyes from the dimness, finding that they shone like cat's eyes.<br>She wanted to jump straight out of bed and run into his arms as she felt that frightened. "I can't sleep."

"It's ok," he sat on the bed and allowed her to throw her arms around him, "it's ok. I'm here now and I'm not going to leave you here any more tonight." He stroked her down her back, in an attempt to relax her.

Clara pulled herself away from him so that she could look straight into his eyes. "I-I wanna sleep with _you_."

Chris had never been faced with such a predicament. It wasn't as though it was a catch twenty-two, but did he feel right about sharing his bed with an eighteen-year old girl? And that was regardless of the fact that she was his _daughter_. He didn't want to leave her in such a frightened state.

"I wanna come to bed with you and sleep with you." She clarified innocently. She felt safer with him than she did on her own, and he might actually help her relax if they were huddled up together – in the more _familial _sense of the term.

"Sure." He suddenly stated. "You can stay with me till you feel well enough to sleep on your own."  
>It would've felt more normal to him if she were around eight or nine and had problems sleeping then, but he had to take into account that she wasn't very well.<p>

"I feel so bad about all this."

"No," he pressed her smaller body into his, "don't feel bad. This isn't your fault. We'll only do this till you feel better."

Clara stood in the doorway to the young male's room, still wearing her silky nightdress. "You sure you don't mind?"

"Come here." He gestured for her to come in and he took her hands with his as he sat down on the bed. "I won't let anything happen to you and I promise you I will not do anything to hurt you."

"I know you wouldn't."

Chris stripped down to his boxers and pulled the blankets away so that they could both slip in underneath. He felt unbelievably perverse at the entire situation – a young, very pretty yet frightened girl was practically lying in the same bed as him. She was within touching distance of him, but it wasn't as though he would do anything intimate to her.

"Can I hug you?"

He pulled her up against him, their bodies pressing together. He stroked her down her back as he felt her shiver. "Close your eyes now."

She shakily closed her eyes and settled more comfortably against him. She felt his nose bury itself in her dark hair and his lips plant themselves on her forehead. She liked it when he kissed her there – it made her feel warm and relaxed.

He closed his eyes also, feeling her arms wrap around his waist. He gave a relaxed sigh at the embrace, placing a hand on her back and pressing her into him to ensure they stayed close together.

He then thought for a few seconds. If he and Karen were done painting the room the next night, then he could always take Clara out for an hour or so as he'd promised to do.  
>Sorted!<p>

Saturday afternoon.  
>Chris left Clara to rest, allowing her to sleep deeply in amongst the warm bedclothes.<br>He got dressed and drove to Karen's place, where she answered the door.  
>"Heard you needed a decorator." He winked suggestively, tilting his hips to one side.<p>

She eyed him up and down, enjoying the sight on her doorstep. She hoped he'd end up peeling his t-shirt off again before he tempted her too much and she ripped it off him herself!  
>Instead of doing that, she pulled him inside her house by taking hold of his wrist and driving him up against the hall's wall. "You must be very careful about tempting me like that, Mr Mead." She warned huskily, placing her hands on his hips.<p>

"Oh, must I?" His blue eyes shimmered teasingly in the sunlight that had flooded the wall.

She leant further forward, sliding her tongue along his lower lip. Such an irresistibly sweet taste hit her tongue after she'd done that and she wanted _more_. "You know, what you did last night was…_very nice_."

He shrugged innocently. "A lot of things happened last night…" He gave a small gasp when her hands slid around his hips and moved to either side of his rear, pulling him further into her. Their hips ground together hard. "Mmm." He tried to stop the flush that was starting to make its way to his cheeks.

"Stripping like that in front of me…" Karen caressed the front of his neck with an index finger, taking considerable pleasure in seeing his response to her groping. "I knew you were _hot_, but I didn't realise you were _that _hot."

Chris didn't quite catch her double entendre, simply taking her remark to mean that he shouldn't have exposed himself like that in her own house. "I-I'm s-so sorry…"

"Oh, no, don't _apologise_. I actually _liked_ it." She smiled naughtily, loving the feel of his soft flesh under her touch. "It's something I wouldn't have minded seeing _again_."

"How is the little one anyway?" He went to where they left her sleeping before, finding her in the same position.

"She's good." She explained. "She slept straight through last night and hasn't woken up since."

"See," he smirked, taking off his jacket, "that's 'cause she's _happy _after being fed properly." He playfully tickled her at her tummy, prompting a half-awake giggle from her.

Within a few hours, they'd finished painting her room and took a few minutes out to rest and go over any bits they may have missed.

"I don't know about you," he looked to her softly, "but I think we've done a perfect job with the way this has turned out – naughtiness aside."

Karen smiled to herself, inwardly disappointed that the opportunity didn't arise for Chris to take his t-shirt off like before. "You're not thinking about going yet, are you?" She didn't want to have to take him back just yet – not after they both worked so hard together in decorating the room.

"You wanna _do it_?"

"Not exactly," she went to exit through the room's door, "I was thinking maybe you wanted to stay for a bit with me."

They both sat together in her lounge, both drinking big cups of tea.

"You didn't have to do this." He weakly protested, although knowing full well that he had a monster weakness for tea – which she already knew about.

"I _wanted _to." She softly admitted, before casting her gaze to his incredibly flat stomach area. "Are you up to anything tonight?"

He peered into his almost-empty cup, feeling a glowing sensation in his tummy. He found that was the nicest feeling ever. He shifted about on the sofa. "Why do you ask?"

"Just to say thank you for working so hard with me on this."

He drew in a small sigh. "I didn't ask for you to make a fuss of me, you know…"

"But I'm not," she sat closer to him, "when was the last time we ever spent a weekend night together?"

Chris thought back to the previous night, where they both had _passionate_ sex in her bed. She was like a _cougar_, surprising him at her agility when she leant over him and did such naughty things with him that it would've been enough for any _other _person at her age to squirm at.

"Not counting last night." She added with a smirk.

"It isn't 'cause I don't _wanna_ spend any time with you, Karen, don't think that," he said after some time, "but I _did_ tell myself to take Clara out for one night. She hasn't had it easy as she hasn't been well, and she's going to think I'm _neglecting _her if I don't treat her as I promised her I would."

"So what about _me_ then?" Karen wanted to know, watching him put his empty cup on the table in front of them and get his jacket back on. "We're meant to be _going out _together."

"I know," his bright blue eyes glistened beautifully in the powdery duskiness, "but Clara's more important to me, she's my _daughter_…we're _family_. What I have with you doesn't compare to that."

She followed him to the front door as he went to see himself out. "So you don't _love _me?"

He tilted his head in confusion. "I never said I didn't _love_ you. All I'm asking for is one night during a weekend, that I can spend with my own daughter and try to have _some _form of normality with her. Is that asking too much from you?"

She drew in a small sigh. "I guess not. I'm sorry…I should remember that things between you and Clara haven't been perfectly straightforward."

"I'm guessing that to normal families, what I'm going through is pretty odd…"

"But you're trying hard to make it work, Chris." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "I've never known _anyone _devote themselves to a relationship the way you have."

"It's not that I don't think you're important," Chris admitted softly, "it's more the case that you're not priority right now. _Clara _is."

Karen nodded slowly. "I understand, really, I do. You'd better go to her before it gets too late and everywhere starts to close up for the night."


	30. Chapter 30

Chris drove back to his flat that night, not expecting Clara to be still up as she'd been so tired lately. He was surprised to see her sitting up on the sofa, turning round to see him come back. "Am I glad not to see you in bed for once."

She tilted her head at him playfully. "Why do you say that?"

"Well, for one thing," he slid next to her and tilted his body towards her, "it's a Saturday night and I don't consent to you going to bed early on a Saturday night. Secondly, if you're not yet sleepy, I was thinking about taking us both out somewhere…"

"Y-you wanted to take me out as you promised?" Her eyes shone happily from the TV screen's glow.

He nodded slowly, a playful smirk reaching his mouth. "I said I wouldn't break my promise to you, didn't I?"

"Wow…"

"So what I suggest you do, young lady," he started teasingly, "is to get something nice on and let me know when you're ready."

Clara gave him a mock pout. "Are you saying I'd take a while to get ready?"

Chris laughed a little. "I don't think you'd take that long – you're pretty enough without getting dolled up anymore."

They both went to a restaurant that she'd set her eyes on after her trip into the centre that time.

"This isn't too expensive for you…is it?" She fretted at making him spend too much on her.

"Don't be silly." He placed a hand on her shoulder as they both stood outside by the main door. "I said I would treat you and that's what I wanna do. Besides," he flicked through the amount of money he had on him, "nothing is too much for _you_."

She blushed madly at his flattering comment. She knew full well that he loved her and would do anything for her, so why should he go to so much trouble _showing _it? She twirled a few of her lustrous dark strands shyly as they went in together.

"Sit wherever you want."

Once she decided on somewhere to sit, Chris slid up behind her chair to pull it out for her. She glowed inside at his chivalry.

"Everything's ok, right?" He realised that he'd said that at least three times before, and he was sure she was getting bored of him saying that.

Clara reached over the table and placed a hand over his. She caressed the soft, dewy flesh tenderly. "You sound worried."

He swallowed hard at her answer. He didn't mean to sound worried and he knew that if _he_ worried, he most certainly made _her_ worry. "I don't _mean _to come across that way…"

"Then _don't_ _worry_," she smiled softly, "silly."

"How do you feel now?"

She took a while to answer. "Better now I'm out of the flat, I guess."

"So the change of scenery has done you some good then?" He assumed.

"It's cleared my mind a little more."

"In what way?"

She frowned a little at how probing his question was. Had he inexplicably turned into some sort of _shrink_? She hoped not. Although…he _was _her dad and so she should feel comfortable talking to him about anything. "About what I want."

This was news to him. When had she _ever _considered anything other than living with him and maintaining a good enough relationship with him?

"I wanna move out."

"Clara, I…" He shifted about a little in the chair he was sitting on. "It isn't that I don't _want_ you to have your own life, 'cause I do, very much so. But it's a little early to consider moving out from _my _place to one of your own. For a start, you need to ensure you feel well enough to be by yourself."

"I _do _feel well enough."

"Ok," he tried again, "I know that over the past few days you've gotten on _better_ than you have done previously, but that doesn't mean to say necessarily that you've healed. Post-traumatic stress takes a _lot _of time to get over and be made liveable without the need for intervention."

She cast her gaze from his bright blue eyes that shone from the slowly flickering candle in the middle of the table.

"Secondly, you need a more stable income. It's no good me having to fork out monthly rents on _your_ place as well as _mine_, 'cause that's not fair. That's going to take a _huge_ chunk out of my account and I've had _enough _problems with that as you well know."

"You don't _have _to fork out any money for my rent when it comes to me renting though, dad."

"So you've got a job?" Chris came over more incredulous.

"You _know _I've got a job."

"Don't tell me you still _work _at that bar in the centre." His voice hinted slight stoniness within it. He thought he'd told her to pack that in.

"The manager wanted me to stay on," Clara shrugged, "I couldn't say no, could I?"

"But that doesn't matter or make it any better." He explained. "You're working there, doing things that even I don't wanna know about. That's how bad doing that sort of job _is_."

"You're making it sound like I'm _dirty_." She frowned more. "That isn't my intention, but I wanted money quick – especially to make up for all the money I spent on your _card_."

"Clara, please listen to me." He pulled her hands closer to him over the table. "That sort of job is _not _for you, not at your age. There are other better jobs for you to go for out there."

She didn't like the way he was talking to her.

"You're _better _than that."

She pulled her hands away from Chris. "You're making me sound like a _slut_."

"I'm not," he stated softly, "I promise you that I'm not."

She sat back in her chair, folding her arms across her chest. It was just as well the two of them had finished eating and he was going to pay. She suddenly felt like she hadn't eaten at all from how sordid he'd made her feel.  
>"I wanna go home." She noted stonily.<p>

"Well, we can go once I sort out the bill." He didn't say anything to her stony remark, choosing to fish out a few notes to settle the bill. "I guess you're feeling a little sleepy after eating so much."

She nodded dimly, saying nothing more to him.

After they went back to the flat, Clara went straight to her room and closed the door.

What could _he_ have done about it? He was too slow to have stopped her anyway as he didn't bank on her hidden anger towards him, and she had a clever way of hiding her intense emotions – turning them on and off like the flick of a switch.  
>He stood by her door, feeling slightly worried that she wasn't well again. "Do you wanna open the door for me, love?"<p>

No answer.

"Clara, I'm sorry for saying what I did, but I just want what's best for you as any parent would. After everything that had gone on between your mum's partner and yourself, why wouldn't I think that way?" He drew in a small sigh. "Please don't seclude yourself like this, it only destroys things between us."

"You're a spoilsport." Her voice came out muffled from behind the door. "You don't want what's best for me at all – you just wanna put me off doing whatever I want."

"Well I'm sorry you feel that way," Chris told himself to remain calm with her, "but that isn't my intention at all. I want you to have a job that you _like_, but…just not this. Please, honey…unlock the door."

"No," she shot back angrily, "go away and leave me alone."

One last attempt wouldn't hurt, surely? "We can do anything you want…anything at all. Come on, it's Saturday night. We can't have you shutting yourself away like this all night."  
>He knew full well that she didn't want to stay in there like a hermit and he was trying so, so hard to lure her back out. Even if they were to do something completely gratuitous like share a massive tub of ice cream between them whilst huddled up on the sofa together, he didn't care – just as long as they were together. "Ok well, please yourself then."<p>

So much for them trying to be a perfect family.

Clara remained curled up on her bed, feeling too tired and drained to stop the tears rolling down her cheeks and for her to hear them drop onto the blankets faintly. She just couldn't see it from his point of view, although did his point of view _matter_ to her?  
>She wanted to do whatever she wanted without his intervention, and seeing as though she was due to be on call for the next night, she was going to go whether he liked it or not!<p>

"I don't care," she mumbled to herself as she started to take her glitzy pendant off, "I'm still going to work tomorrow night and he can't stop me."


	31. Chapter 31

Sunday evening.  
>Chris had been aware of Clara not coming out of her room since the previous night. Ok, the two of them have had their ups and downs but she couldn't have held a massive grudge against him and even if she did, it wouldn't have been for very long.<br>He lightly knocked on her bedroom door. "Clara, is everything ok, love? You haven't come out of there since you shut yourself away."

No answer.

"I know you don't approve of what I said last night, but try to see it from my point of view. I don't want you taking on jobs that could _hurt _you."

He went to give up trying to prise the door open, but it came open anyway. He was surprised at that, as he thought she'd locked it. Either that or she was playing the silent game with him.

He found her room completely deserted, which meant that she'd slipped out without him noticing.  
>He couldn't see that the window had been left open, and it wasn't as though she'd have been able to slip out through that anyway – they weren't at ground level!<p>

He noticed that she hadn't left the room exceedingly tidy, which was nothing unusual for someone like her, but he _did _notice a calling card from her work that she'd left on the nightstand.

He wasn't going to let his own daughter keep up such a dangerous job.

"I'm looking for one of your girls." Chris explained to the bar's manager after he'd driven down to the centre in an attempt to get Clara back home.

"She isn't here, mate."

He frowned. "What do you mean, not here?"

"She had an altercation with one of the punters…she was quite badly shaken so we let her have the night off."

He swallowed hard. If she'd been told to go home yet she didn't turn up at the flat, that would _have _to mean that she wasn't going to come back – voluntarily or otherwise.

He shakily made to leave the bar so that he could get back into his car and drive home without her when he heard sniffling come from the corner of the building.

Frowning, he followed the path round to where the noise was coming from, stopping when he noticed a small trail of shiny flecks shimmer on the pavement like cats' eyes. He suddenly had a horrible feeling.

He came across Clara's slender form huddled in the corner of the small alleyway. Her glitzy outfit had been torn from her and subsequently left in scraps that were barely managing to protect her dignity.

Chris went to her, taking her in his arms after bending down to her level. He found that she was shivering hard and she immediately flopped into his embrace.  
>"It's ok now. I've found you."<p>

"I don't feel very well…" She mumbled dimly, burying her nose in his t-shirt that was under his open jacket. "I-I wanna go home."

"Ssh…it's ok now, I'm going to take you home." He lifted her up off the ground and carried her to his car. He laid her down in the back before getting in the driver's side to go back.

She was still shivering quite badly when he carried her into the flat and set her down on her bed. "I-I hurt all over…"

"Ssh…it's ok. It's ok, it's over now." Disappearing from her room, he came back in no time at all with a blanket and wrapped that around her. He was aware that she'd been hurt, and he couldn't let that go ignored. He took in her frightened state, knowing that he had to take more action than simply taking her to bed and making her stay there.

"I-I'm sorry, dad…" Clara looked to Chris, watching him dial a number on his mobile. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's ok, don't worry." He waited till he got through to someone. "It was something you couldn't stop."

"But it was my fault," she noticed the look of concern that was once on his youthful features became stonier, "I didn't listen to you."

What had gone on only enhanced his fears for her. Out of the corner of his eye, he took in what she was wearing, and he felt sick to the stomach at what they were making her put on.

Ok, it was for show and she did have an enviable figure, but she was way too young to be subjected to such things and it wasn't what he wanted for her. After all, what only just happened to the poor girl was proof that she was in the wrong job.

"Please, I…" She shivered a little more. "Don't take me to the hospital."

"That's not who I'm calling." He stated blankly. "I'm trying to get through to the police."

"I don't wanna report it."

Resignedly, he disconnected the call after realising he wasn't going to get through. "Clara, sweetheart…you've been _assaulted_. Not only that, but it's left you in a very traumatised state. How can you possibly feel ok enough to not take this any further?"

She shook her head sadly. "'Cause it's my fault it all panned out the way it did."

Chris's eyes took on a sadder, softer appearance and he perched next to her on the bed. He wrapped an arm around her. "Is this really what you want?"

Clara nodded slowly.

"Ok." He eventually agreed. "Do you feel any better now?"

"I feel better now that you're here with me." She admitted, cuddling up to him on the bed.

"So you don't wanna sleep just yet?"

She drew in a small, relaxed sigh and rubbed him down his flat front with her hand. He felt so warm and cuddly. "I guess I could get ready for bed, but I'm not exactly sleepy."

"Get yourself sorted then." His eyes took on a happier appearance. "We can stay up for a little bit longer…maybe cuddle up and watch a film together. Like the sound of that?"

She nodded slowly.

"Well then," he went to leave her to get on with that, "let's do it."

Before either of them settled fully into the film that he'd stuck on, he put it on pause and looked to her in an enquiring way. "You want anything?"

She felt like eating _something. _What, she wasn't sure, but she didn't feel like anything large or particularly filling. "Depends what you had in mind."

"Well…"

They both settled back down watching the film together in between excavating huge spoonfuls of ice cream from the large tub they were sharing.

"I didn't think you were an ice cream person." Clara pointed out.

"No?" Chris's eyes sparkled from the screen's glow. "And why do you say that?"

She shrugged. "I thought you were already sweet enough."

"Well there are many things that you still don't know about me then."

"I'm going to have to say the same for me." She smirked playfully. She noticed he looked slightly confused. "I wanted to suggest something to you…"

"Oh dear." He laughed a little. "That doesn't sound promising."

"With what's been going on over the past few days, have I held you up with your work?"

He shrugged. "Maybe a little. But that doesn't mean to say I won't catch up with it at all."

"Then do you want me to come in and help you?" She asked him sweetly.

"Aww, honey…" He placed a hand on her shoulder. "What made you wanna say that?" He didn't _fully _like the idea of her helping him, as he didn't want her to get hurt. Although he was going to be with her at all times…

"I don't know." She admitted. "I guess 'cause then I'd be out of the flat and I wouldn't be on my own."

He gave a small, relaxed sigh when she cupped his face and skimmed a thumb along the contour of his cheekbone. "If that's really what you want."

Clara nodded softly. "I feel safer if I'm with you all the time."

He tenderly placed a hand around her wrist. He knew that she certainly gave him that impression. "Then that's what we'll do."

Monday morning.  
>Chris came into work with Clara in tow.<p>

"So what's on the cards for me to help with then?" She wanted to know, as he took her to his room.

He usually did things at his own pace, so it was fair to say he didn't really know what to give her to get on with. "Well it isn't even time to _start _yet. Not for another twenty minutes anyway."

"That's funny really." She laughed a little.

He tilted his head in mild confusion. "What's funny?"

"You strike me as the sort of person who likes to come in early and get on with something work-related."

He looked away shyly. "Don't know what you mean." He felt a blush start at his cheeks and he knew she was onto him. She'd nailed him.

He suddenly came over nervous at having to think up something, if not for the fact that his own daughter was in his workplace – watching his every move. Well, not watching his every move, but it felt like that to him.

Clara perched against his desk, watching him in mild amusement as he set about finding something for her to get on with.

"This is proving to be very difficult," Chris dimly admitted, "but I don't actually _have _anything for you to sort out by yourself as of yet. But maybe after the first set or two something may crop up."

"All this talk you've given me about staying behind and catching up with your stuff, only for you to now say you've _done _all that?"

"Erm, well, no." He stood not very far away from her. "I still have that same sort of stuff to be getting on with, but it's stuff that's…quite advanced for you." He squirmed at what he'd just said. Since when was _marking_ advanced? The blush reddened somewhat.

"I get it." She smiled softly. "So I guess all I do is look pretty for you."

"You can do more than simply be decoration for the kids to look at." He came closer to her. "There are _minor_ things I can leave you to get on with."


	32. Chapter 32

After the first set was over, Clara went around all the desks to collect in the textbooks Chris had asked her to hand out at the start. She placed them in a neat enough stack on the young male's desk, not far from where he was sitting.

"Wow," he almost breathed in amazement, "wish that your room was just as tidy as that."

"I like to make an impression."

"You certainly did _that_." He noted, his eyes giving off a playful shimmer. "You didn't go unnoticed from some of the boys in that set, you know."

She twirled the ends of her hair coyly. She didn't want to see herself as particularly good-looking, but it was flattering for such a remark to have come from her own _parent_.

"Still trying to work out what job to go for?" Chris's voice came from within her reverie.

She snapped to. "Sorry."

A playful smile switched from his concerned expression.

"I haven't given it much thought, to be honest."

"You just seemed really thoughtful for a few seconds." He stopped what he was writing. "Not from what I just _said_, is it?"

She shook her head. "I was only going to ask you what more you want me to help with." She fibbed.

"Oh." He swiftly looked up from where he was behind his desk. "Everything's pretty much all done."

Clara looked around for something to get on with, knowing full well that he was right. Everything was pretty much as it was when they came in earlier that morning.

"Don't feel like you have to stay in here." He continued. He didn't know why he said that, as he wanted her with him at all times so he knew where she was and that she was ok. "Just don't go far."

"I'd rather stay here…" She caught his eager gaze. "…With you."

"So being in here with me doesn't bore you then?" He teased.

"No." She laughed. "I _like _staying in here with you."

He smirked at her remark and he went back to what he was writing. He was unaware of her gaze on him, not knowing that she couldn't help but find him cute when he was reading or writing.

"One of your last lot _spilt _something." She suddenly stated, noticing a small clear pool of something on the floor near to where she was sitting.

Chris knew that wasn't good, and the last thing he wanted was for her to sort that out. He swiftly emerged from behind his desk that time. "You wanna leave that to me?"

"Why?" Clara looked to him.

"'Cause it could be dangerous."  
>By the time he'd gotten to where she was, she'd already touched it.<p>

"Ouch."

"I told you to leave that to me, Clara." He wrapped her hand up in a towel and immediately put that under the nearest tap on cold. "Silly girl…"

"I just wanted to help."

"I know you did, honey, but that was…you should've left that to me, hands down." He rebuked her softly. "If you…could excuse the pun."

She smiled a little, feeling the searing pain fade away. She figured it must've been the fact that he was _holding_ her there rather than the _water _actually doing what it should.

"How does that feel now?"

"A lot better."

He gently peeled the towel away from her, noticing nothing untoward. "It looks a little red, but apart from that it's fine." His eyes fixed onto her firmly. "Don't _ever_ attempt to clear anything like that up, you don't know what it'd be."

"I'm sorry."

He took on a laxer posture, his eyes becoming less firm and more affectionate. How he could flit from work mode to paternal mode astounded her. "Don't worry about it for now, I got to you quick enough and it won't get any worse."

Clara was sure she'd shocked him when she reached out with her unharmed hand and cupped his face softly, yet he didn't shy away or tell her to stop.  
>Such lovely skin…<p>

If anything, Chris took on a more bemused expression. He didn't _mind_ his own daughter touching him in a non-intimate place in a non-intimate way, but why _then_, of all times? He was at work, for goodness' sake!

"You've been so good to me," she spoke softly, "and I don't know how to thank you."

"Y-you don't _have_ to." He might as well say what he would've said in any given situation with her. "You're family, aren't you?"

"But we've spent so much time apart…I don't see how we can make up for it."

"We _will_." He wanted to refrain from hugging her, especially if she'd been hurt – and the fact that anyone walking by outside his room could look in and see did worry him. "I don't know how, but we _will_, I promise."

She wrapped her arms around his slender waist, simply wanting the feel of him against her. She sighed deeply at the contact, sensing his warm soft body pressed up to her.

What could he have done about it? It wasn't as though he didn't _like _it, but why there? She had him in a vicelike grip, as if she wasn't going to let go of him.

"I love you."

Tentatively, he stroked her at the back of her head, sliding his fingers through her long hair. "I love you too." He looked to see what time it was. "I'm going to have to get back to my marking, I'm afraid."

"What about me?"

Chris perched himself back behind his desk. He didn't want to have to consistently find stuff for Clara to get on with as he was behind enough with his own work.

He didn't exactly want to tell her to go away and find something by herself, as that wasn't fair. He told her he would take charge of her and that wasn't something he'd let fall by the wayside – not when it came down to things regarding _family_. "You can stay here if you want," he made to continue his marking, "but really and honestly, I haven't got anything else for you."

She pouted as she took a seat behind the first row of desks. She wanted to make it up to him after the previous night. She was sure she'd hurt him, but if _she_ hadn't hurt him, whoever did that to her probably did.

He quickly allowed his gaze to dart to her, inwardly thankful that she'd decided to stay put and keep quiet. He went back to what he was doing.

Once he'd gotten through the first half of papers he'd marked, he noticed her in the same position. He went over to her. "You still feeling bad after what had gone on last night?"

She nodded sadly. "A little."

"Don't worry," he wrapped an arm around her, "that guy won't touch you again 'cause I'm forbidding you to go anywhere on your own."

She swallowed a sob back down into her throat. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise." He stated softly. "It happened, neither of us could stop it but you're safe now."

Clara looked up at the time later that evening. Half-past seven. At that time, she'd be getting herself dolled up in the bar's changing rooms with the other dancers, deciding which skimpy, sequin-adorned number went with which stilettos.  
>A big change to where she <em>currently <em>was.

"You ok?" Chris's voice came from her side.

She looked to see his bright, blue eyes fixed onto her concernedly. "I guess so."

"You miss working there, don't you?"

She nodded slowly. "But you're right. I shouldn't be there doing things like that."

He felt a wave of guilt crash over him. He'd taken away his own daughter's job, but rightly so.  
>He was also worried that what had been going on was pulling them both apart. She didn't have a good upbringing, which he could understand, but he really <em>was <em>trying to make it all work for both of them – give her some form of normality.

She drew in a small sigh, feeling her muscles ache at feeling tired. "I should go to bed." She got up off the sofa, expecting him to get up and follow her so he could get her settled. He stayed put.

"Try and get some sleep, ok?"

She nodded dimly. The next day could see her feeling even _worse _than before. "'Night, dad."

"'Night, honey. I love you."

She glowed inwardly at his response. "I love you too."

Chris didn't spend that long staying up. He went to go to bed when he quietly opened the door to Clara's room to see her deeply asleep.

She _was_ tired and he knew he was right to have suggested she slept. He positioned himself on her bed, carefully gathering up her long dark hair and allowing it to scatter to one side over the blankets.

He must've spent an _eternity_ with her, twirling the dark ends around his index finger and causing them to spiral prettily against her skin. He could easily do that all day and all night, simply playing with her hair. It felt so soft and silky.

He leant over her, cupping her face softly and caressing the contour of her cheek by allowing his thumb to graze along it and trace its curve. She was so angelic as she laid there, her purity highlighted by her fair flesh and slightly rosy cheeks. He planted a sugar-soft kiss on her forehead, eliciting an indolent mumble from her. She sounded just as sweet as she looked. "'Night, my angel…sweet dreams."


	33. Chapter 33

The next morning.  
>Chris got up to see Clara still deeply asleep.<br>He would've made her something before he left for work, but there was no telling when she'd wake up or if she felt like anything. He decided to leave her to her own devices, as she seemed happy to lie there. As long as she didn't leave the flat before he got back it'd all work out ok.

He went straight to his room and before long Karen had come in. His eyes sparkled blissfully in the morning light at the unexpected sight of her.  
>He then frowned when he noticed a more sombre attitude to her. "Everything ok?"<p>

She shook her head dimly, not wanting to look at him directly.

"Has something happened?" Chris stopped what he was doing and went over to her. He didn't care about anything else but her and her feelings.

"You owe me an explanation." She told him frostily.

He wasn't at all put off by her glacial attitude with him. "Sure, but an explanation for what exactly?"

"These." She produced two blown up, photocopied pictures of him and Clara in a _very _close embrace. A few derogatory words were put at the bottom of both of them, either relating to him or her. "These are up all over the place."

He wasn't that offended by what he saw. He knew that she'd caught the gaze of more than one kid in his sets and he had a pretty huge fan base himself. Of course kids of either sex were going to _envy _them for one reason or another!

"I-is this true, Chris?"

He shrugged, clearly not getting it. "Is what true?"

"Your relationship with this girl." Karen's eyes glazed over sadly. "A-are you _seeing _her?"

Chris didn't know what to say. He was going to _have _to reveal Clara's identity at some stage, but not like that.

"It seems like you two are pretty close in that picture."

He drew in a small sigh, leaning against the side of his desk and placing his hands in his pockets. "That girl is my daughter."

Her eyes widened somewhat, taking in his passive posture.

"She'd been hurt the night before…I agreed to let her come in and help me out for one day as she felt quite bad."

"I'm sorry." She suddenly admitted. "I'm so sorry…I've accused you of seeing underage girls and it wasn't what you were doing at all."

"It's not that that's worried me, Karen," he looked to her softly, "it's the fact that you've accused me of _cheating _on you."

She cast her gaze down to the floor.

"If I'm in love with someone, I don't _cheat_ on them with someone else." His voice sounded pallid with shock. "How could you _think _that of me?"

"I know, I just jumped to conclusions…I saw the picture of you two together and I thought…"

"Well, you thought _wrong_." He retorted, suddenly wanting to go back behind his desk and carry on with what he wanted to get on with. "If that was all you wanted me for, I think you ought to go."

Casting her gaze to the floor, Karen sadly exited the room. She had no intention of hurting Chris the way she did but she wanted answers from him.  
>She wished she could've apologised right there and then, but with the shaken state he was in, was that really the right thing to do? He probably still would've told her to leave him alone.<p>

Clara was bored.  
>She hadn't long gotten up from her few extra hours of sleep, but not knowing what to set about doing prompted the tedium to set in even more and exhaust her in the process. Maybe writing about her feelings wasn't a bad idea…If anything, it'd give her an hour or so to keep her mind active.<p>

Trawling through her bag, she fished out a notebook that she absent-mindedly shoved in with the rest of her stuff. She clicked open her pen and pressed its nib against a blank page. Why did she still feel so bad? She thought once she'd told him everything about what had happened between her and her mum's partner, she'd feel better. But she didn't go into _every _single detail…

"Wow," Chris remarked after his set with Harry and the others, "you've done better this time."

He shrugged. "I don't know what I did."

"Well, things at home have perked up a bit, surely?" _He_ should know; he'd been sleeping with the kid's _mother_! If that wasn't reason enough, what was?

"I've been focussing more on the paper, I guess." He loosely presumed. "I haven't been spending much time with the rest of my family…"

"Well in this case," he smiled softly, "that's not a bad thing."

He didn't know where to look. He hadn't expected to do so well, but that was the truth.  
>Karen had been spending an <em>unhealthy<em> amount of time with Jess's little one, and whilst he couldn't deny that his sister was never really there, a babysitter should be in her place – not her _mother_. "Can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure." He handed his marked paper back to him. "I don't have a set right now, and if _you _don't have anywhere else you should be going to, talk away."

Harry drew in a small sigh, giving Chris slightly more concern at how jaded he sounded and seemed.

"Things at home still not all that good?"

He paused for a second, before darting his gaze to the older male's bright blue orbs. "If my mum's spending a lot of time with my sister's baby, what does that tell you?"

He shrugged. "I don't really know…I do remember your mum telling me that Jess rarely ever spends any time with her little one. I can only put it down to that." He did _not_ want to let him catch on to the fact that he knew more, so much more, than just simply _that_.

"You sound like you know a lot."

"It's just…common sense, isn't it?" He inattentively made to get another unmarked paper ready for his imminent, undivided attention. "And besides, your mum _does_ talk to me at times about things at home, Harry."

"Really?" He cocked his head in interest.

"Sure she does," he put his pen back down, "we _are _both friends."

Harry still seemed sad.

"You don't seem convinced that it's pretty much normal behaviour that you're seeing from her."

"It isn't that, but…"

"But what?"

He shyly cast his gaze away. "I think there's something wrong with my mum."

"Harry," he shifted about a little in his chair, "you've got nothing to worry about your mum, absolutely nothing. You'll see that for yourself when you get home after school, and everything will be fine. And _she's _fine. She'll let you know when something's wrong."

"I just…I don't know."

"Well _I_ do." Chris leant further forward over his desk. "I know your mum almost as well as _you _do, and things at home will be fine when you go back."

Karen waited nervously for her name to be called at the surgery later that afternoon.  
>When she was called through, she shakily took a seat in front of her doctor's desk.<p>

"How can I help you, Karen?" The friendly female doctor leant forward over her desk.

She felt another hot flush develop, and it was terrible to suddenly feel so hot and flustered. "I'm finding it hard to separate myself from Jess's baby when she isn't there."

"Well, that's completely normal." She reassured her. "If the baby's natural mother isn't there for them, a more experienced female is likely to want to look after them."

"But it's happening all the time." She admitted, prompting a frown to form at the doctor's face. "And I've been coming over really hot and flushed over the past few days."

"Does your husband know about how you're feeling and behaving?"

She sadly shook her head. "We separated. But I'm seeing someone else…"

"Does _he _know?"

"I just…don't want him to worry."

"I think what I should do is to refer you to the hospital for some tests," she explained softly, "just to rule out any infections or particular problems with things _down there_."

Karen didn't like where the conversation was going. She felt a stab in her chest. She hoped it wasn't coming to that time…that time where motherhood would well and truly stop. She swallowed hard at the thought.

"Once the tests are done, they should know there and then what's going on and they'll relay that information onto you."

She sat in the cold, clinically sterile room in the hospital, feeling even colder with the crisp white sheet over her. She waited for the doctor to come back and put her out of her misery with what was making her feel so odd.

"I'm sorry to have kept you." The doctor came back into the room. "We've got the test results back."

She felt a chill slide down her back. She wished that they _didn't_.

"You're going through menopause, Karen."

She felt a lump grow in her throat and she swallowed it down, only for another one to form and grow even bigger than the first. "F-for how long have I been going through this?"

"Not that long." She explained.

"But long enough to make me…not be able to be pregnant."

"It's a long shot to consider being able to get pregnant any time soon." She stated. "That doesn't mean to say that it won't _ever_ happen, as in some cases it does, but the baby might not be able to survive through each trimester."

She shakily drew in a deep breath. It was quite heavy information to be told after a whole day's work. "So that's it for me then."

"Go home." The doctor compassionately suggested. "Go home, get some sleep and try to talk this all through with your partner when you feel ready to. Being told you're going through menopause is a life-altering situation, and it _will _sink in."

She thanked her and set about getting dressed in the small room after the talk was over. There came a light rap at the door and Chris slowly emerged.

"Harry told me you were here." He dimly explained. "Is everything ok?"

She nodded dimly, holding off wanting to tell him what she'd just been told. It was a huge shock, and she still couldn't believe it.

"Things can't be ok if you were taken up here." He replied.

"Just a check-up," she fibbed, "that was all."

"But you usually get so many weeks' notice for one of those." He frowned. "Unless…something cropped up for them to refer you."

"I can't have kids with you, Chris." Karen sharply stated, prompting him to jolt a little. "I just…can't produce something both of us would've made together."

"Karen…I don't understand." He noted blankly.

She closed her eyes sadly. She thought that he meant he was just as disillusioned as her about the revelation.  
>"I'm going through the menopause." She opened her eyes to be met with his still confused expression. "I can't have a baby with you."<p>

"That doesn't matter," Chris sat down beside her on the bed, "what we have is good enough."

"I-it doesn't _bother_ you?"

He shook his head. "That was what you were worried about?"

"Y-yes." She finished getting dressed. "Very much so. I hadn't been wanting to tell you in case I got you worried…"

"I _love_ you," he boldly admitted, "and as long as I love you, that's all that matters."


	34. Chapter 34

Tuesday afternoon.  
>Chris came back home after work, seeing Clara curled up on the sofa when he came in. "Not falling asleep, are you?"<p>

She sprung up from where she was lying. "How long have you been there?"

He smirked playfully. "I've only just literally come in." He dropped down next to her, giving her a big hug. "How's my princess then?"

She glowed inside at him calling her a 'princess'. "I'm ok," her voice told him something completely different, "how about you?"

"Oh, I'm fine…just a normal day at work to be fair." He loosened his grip on her. "Everything is ok with you, love, right?"

She shrugged. "Why wouldn't I say it is?"

"I just…" Chris sat back on the sofa. "I'm getting the vibes from you that it isn't."

Clara cast her gaze down to the floor.

"Clara, I know how hard things have been for both of us and especially you, but don't ever feel like you can't talk to me about anything."

She sighed a little, feeling a wave of guilt crash over her. "I've already said that I'm ok."

"I don't think you are." He rubbed her down her back softly. "Did something happen while I was out?"

"I don't think it'd be something you'd understand."

He remained quiet for a few seconds. "What about it wouldn't I understand?"

She didn't like it when he became pressing. She knew he only did that when he was inadvertently worried about her, and he had every right to be worried about her as he _loved _her.

"If it's something you don't wanna talk about," he placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed her there, "then at least write it down. Don't keep thoughts and feelings to yourself."

"That's what I _have _been doing." She got up sharply, not wanting him to talk any more about it. "I wanna have a bath…so I can sleep better."

"Sure." Chris let her go. "You know where everything is."

Clara tried to relax as she went to take her bath. That was the main reason she wanted one. It wasn't because he was having a go at her, as he was doing nothing of the sort. She had trouble sleeping and she knew that she did, so what better way to help with that than a _bath_?

He _hated _the thought of going through someone else's room. Well, he'd never _done_ it before, and it wasn't really Clara's room to start with – she moved into it. But he had to know what was bothering her.  
>He presently came across her notebook, and he flicked onto the first page. He had no idea that she used it as a <em>diary<em>.

_"Friday, January 7__th_

_Mum's gone out again – I don't know where she goes but I know she has this habit of disappearing every Friday night and leaving a trail of strong perfume behind her. She doesn't take __**him** with her as he just sits around in the lounge watching TV and gets himself hammered. Maybe she goes out to bingo or something."_

The next entry:

_Saturday, January 8__th_

_Mum didn't come back till the early hours of this morning. I didn't realise bingo went on for so long. He shouted at her when she came back and he demanded to know where she went, but I thought he __**knew**__ she went out every Friday night. I didn't know what happened but I'm sure I heard her __**crying**__.  
>I hope he didn't <em>_**hurt**__ her."_

Chris went through the last two entries, which didn't even go to the back of the book:

_"Monday, __September 5_th__

_I've been staying with my dad for a little over a month now. He's been so good to me, but I still keep getting nightmares and I don't know why. It isn't as though I haven't told him about what had gone on between my mum's boyfriend and me but I don't understand why these feelings and thoughts won't stop. I don't want it to get to the stage where I should kill myself and let it end now."_

He felt tears start to well up behind his eyes.

_"Tuesday, __September 6_th__

_Maybe I should end it all right now."_

He froze. Clara could well be thinking of doing such things _at that very moment_.  
>He rushed straight into the bathroom, inwardly thankful that she didn't bolt the door locked and came across her fully submerged in the bath.<br>He pulled her out, not caring if he saw any bits he really shouldn't have. Her safety was more important than what he did or didn't see.

He had a feeling she didn't do it that long ago, so not a lot of time elapsed between that and when he found her. He placed her down on the floor on her back, tilting her head back so that he could start to resuscitate her. Never did he think he'd end up having to do that all again.

"Clara," he softly swept her long, wet hair back away from her forehead, "I need you to breathe for me, love…" He hadn't have done very many attempts, but it wasn't good if she wasn't breathing for herself. "Come on, honey…you don't wanna do this."  
>He pressed his lips to hers once more, breathing into her a little more powerfully than before.<p>

She coughed violently and stirred under him as he leant over her and placed a hand against her forehead. She couldn't believe how disgustingly soapy the water she'd breathed in was.

Chris sat back against the side of the bath when she sat up after getting her breath back.

"Y-you saved me."

He looked to her weakly. "I couldn't let you go – you should know that by now."

"I didn't want you to intervene."

"But I _had_ to." He pointed out.

"Why couldn't you have just let me die?"

"Don't talk stupid." He inched over to her and took her into an embrace. "Not since you're my _daughter_."

Clara drew in a small sigh, yet felt her bad thoughts and feelings get diffused through his contact. She was damp to the touch and was showing parts of her anatomy that he shouldn't really see, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to be held.

"Tell you what," he said after a few elapsed minutes of them simply sitting on the bathroom floor huddled together, "the school I work at has got a late summer party taking place at the end of the week. You can always come along if you want."

She smirked wryly. "I don't _go_ to the school."

"No, but you _are_ special." He tried to persuade her. "And you might _like_ it." Even _his_ first thoughts on the event were that _he _didn't like the sound of it at all. He just saw it as an excuse to fritter away the school's finances.  
>But, it was all Tom's idea that he and Karen sanctioned and he was considered a mate of his, so why not both of them go?<br>"Think of yourself going as a VIP." He added.

She gave him a reluctant look when she wrapped herself up with the towel he handed to her. "I guess, but people will know of my connection with you if I go."

Chris shrugged. "It's not exactly a _scandal_, is it? Me and Karen's relationship is more so." He pulled her into a hug. "Come on, don't be so miserable."

"I'm not being miserable."

"So what _are _you being?"

She shifted about a little in his hug. "I don't know what to wear."

"I'm sure that with the amount of stuff you bought all that time ago, you'll come up with something." He smirked playfully. He looked to see what time it was. "You'd better think about going to bed, young lady."

Clara pouted. "Don't wanna go to bed."

He laughed. "Well, that's tough. It's coming up to that time," he grabbed her around her waist and pulled her back up into a standing position, "and you're probably getting very sleepy by now."

"No, I'm not." She couldn't stop a yawn that came from her, proving her wrong.

"I think you are." He got her into her room. "Go to sleep now."

Friday soon came round.  
>Chris finished earlier in the afternoon. His last set ended at half-past two, and he got home to see Clara getting ready.<br>_She didn't waste any time_, he thought to himself. "See, thought it was something you couldn't wait for." He teased, watching her skilfully twist her long dark hair with her straighteners. He couldn't get over how beautifully the strands fell into waves when she released them and moved onto the others.

"It'd give me a change of scenery, I suppose."

"And that's done you some good, from what you've been telling me."

"I hope _you're _going to look nice as well," she saw him disappear from his leaning position against her door panel, "and that it isn't going to be just me."

"Would I do that to you?" He made to take off his t-shirt, only for her to take a glance at the flash of fair skin underneath at his waist before it vanished under the dark fabric again.

_Wow_, she breathed in amazement. She felt _incredibly _lucky that he happened to be her dad!

He drove them both to the school, parking up in his usual spot and opening the door at Clara's side so she could get out.

"That's what _I _call service." She noted, slipping out of the front passenger seat.

"I aim to please." He quickly locked the car and allowed her to link his arm with hers.

"So what's Karen _like_ exactly?" She asked nervously.

"Find out for yourself." Chris smirked playfully. "We'll go and see her together."

Karen was overseeing Tom try and sort out the barbeque with his apparently infinite supply of matches. She saw both of them approach her, and she went over to talk to them.  
>"I don't know," she noted blankly, "the mastermind behind all of this is having trouble lighting the barbeque."<p>

He smirked at her little taunt at Tom. He inwardly hoped he didn't hear her. "You didn't wanna bring any of your lot along?"

"Bex came home from uni unannounced yesterday. She offered to look after the little one whilst Jess does her own thing. Harry's about though…somewhere."

"Well, I brought _mine_." He realised Clara had her arms wrapped around his hips and he didn't want to prise her off him. He knew that she had problems connecting with new people and he respected that. "It's ok, love…don't be shy."

After a shy self-introduction from Clara, she left the two adults alone together whilst going off with Harry once he came back.

"So Jess didn't wanna come then?" Chris wanted to know.

Karen shook her head. "I don't honestly know what goes on with that girl. She gets on fine with looking after the baby, and then all of a sudden she does things wrong, ends up endangering her and then…I don't think she knows what she's taking on."

"Maybe what she's doing is normal for her situation." He supposed loosely. "It could well be her way of using it as an outlet for how demanding looking after a baby is."

She giggled a little at what he said. "You sound like a shrink."

"I don't honestly know why she does what she does." He shrugged. "It could be anyone's guess. But in my opinion, she's not doing any harm and I shouldn't worry about it."

"But she can't keep doing it."

"I don't think she will." He reassured her. "Everyone has their ways of using something as an outlet to take their mind off something else, don't they? Like Clara – she writes to express the way she feels."

"On that note," Karen took a small mouthful of wine, "Chris, she's absolutely _beautiful_."

"Well…" Chris shyly cast his gaze to the floor. "We did both try really hard…"

"I think it's fair to say she got her good looks from her _daddy_."

"She and Harry seemed to have got on quite well from what I can see." He noted, seeing them sit on the grass together.

She nodded softly. "He gets on well with _most_ kids." She turned to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "As for _us_…"

"What about us?" He was wary that Tom wasn't far away and could probably see what the two of them were doing. That was if he'd either given up playing with the matches or gotten one of them to light the barbeque.

She leant further forward, pressing her lips to his. "I think _we_ get on very well together." She noted huskily, caressing the dewy-soft skin under his jaw. "Well enough to do things like _this_…" She moved her hands to his hips, working them around the back to either side of his rear.  
>What she'd felt was <em>incredible<em>.


	35. Chapter 35

"I'm glad that you don't think Clara's…you know…crazy." Chris admitted as he and Karen walked along the school's field together with the sun setting prettily in the sky in front of them.

"'Crazy'?" She reiterated, pulling him to one side. "Why would I think that?"

"People with post-traumatic stress, especially young ones like her, do get stigmatised." He looked to her sadly. "She's done a lot of extreme things over the past few weeks."

"I've seen the way she's with you," she took hold of him around his wrist, "the way she looks at you…Chris, she _loves _you. She well and truly adores you."

He came over slightly coy and cast his gaze away.

"I think you've done a _brilliant _job with her." She added.

"For someone who wasn't thought of as father material."

Karen frowned. "The woman who had her said that?"

Chris nodded dimly.

"Don't listen to her." She insisted. "She couldn't have been a very good mother if you're doing a better job than she is."

"I'm just worried about letting Clara go though, Karen." He stated. "With all the problems she's had, I don't think I can _afford_ to let her go. I might _lose _her."

"Then _don't _let her go." She told him, squeezing his wrists. "And don't stop what you're doing with her."

Once a good enough crowd had built up over the next hour, Karen arranged for them all to have a small gathering.

Clara found Chris not too far away after disbanding from Harry. She slid up beside her father and took hold of his hand, squeezing it. He glowed inside at the affectionate contact.

"I'm glad so many of you turned up tonight." She started. "The ones who haven't made it…well, all the more sausages for _us_!"

Several people laughed from within the crowd.

"It hasn't been an easy time for any of us." She continued. "Even for people like myself."

Chris tilted his head in mild confusion. Just what was she on about?

"Menopause," she explained steadily, "isn't a word many of the younger women are yet familiar with. It changes your life. And whilst it's something most of you girls won't experience any time soon, don't feel that you're alone with it when it _does _come."

He felt a wave of relief wash over him. Thank god there was no mention of _him_ or _them_!

Clara squeezed his hand to get him to look at her. 'I love you,' she mouthed to him when he did.

"And I've got a very special person who's going to be with me every step of the way, and he's actually here tonight."

Uh oh.

"Chris, would you like to come out to the front with me?"

He felt himself go beetroot red and he shakily went to the front where she was.  
>He certainly felt almost every single kid's eyes on him when he cut through the whispering voices that were surely talking about him.<p>

"She's been seeing Mr Mead?"

"Lucky girl…"

"I knew that'd happen – anyone would've seen that coming."

He awkwardly went beside Karen, not knowing where to look. He didn't expect her to wrap her arm around him to hug him close to her body.

He was not very comfortable at having to endure a public display from her.

"He's been absolutely lovely about the changes going on in my body, and even though we won't be able to have a child of our own making, he has one of his own – who he thinks the world of. And _I_," she slid her index finger up the side of his neck, prompting a shiver from him, "think the world of him _also_."

Chris squirmed when she moved her lips against his and took in a very sweet citrus taste on him as she withdrew.

A few shocked gasps sounded from within the crowds.

She smiled playfully. "I hope there'll be more of that later."

He was sure half of the people watching were shocked. "K-Karen…"

"Ssh…" She pressed her index finger to his lips. "No more talking. Not once I put forward something to you…"

He swallowed hard.

"Chris, will you marry me?"

He looked to Clara, whose expression was more confused and shocked than entirely happy. He drew in a small sigh.  
>"No."<p>

She came over immediately crestfallen. He couldn't have…no. He couldn't have rejected her proposal. Maybe he was playing hard to get. "Is it too soon, is that what it is?" She wanted to know. "I-is it…me?"

"It's neither." He explained, signalling to Clara to come out and go to the side of him. "I've got more of a responsibility to my little girl."

Karen looked to see her nestle her head against him. "S-so with us…"

"I didn't exactly wanna be a friend with benefits, Karen…that was never my intention." Chris went on. "But Clara needs me more and looking back, I don't think there ever came a time when I wanted to marry you."

Tom stood where he was, taking in the younger male's posture. He looked a little weighed down, but he remained firm with his daughter clinging to him. She was certainly being very _loyal_ towards him, not wanting to move or leave him on his own.

"Can't you see?" He went on, feeling her grip on him tighten. "She doesn't wanna let go of me. And this is why we can't marry. Possibly not ever."

"B-but I love you," she protested, "we can still make this all work."

He shook his head. "It won't work. Not if I've made mine and Clara's relationship work already. And my relationship with her was never straightforward to start with." He didn't expect Karen to announce their relationship in front of half of the school and to then ask him to marry her. That was something he wasn't comfortable with. "And I wanna quit."

She swallowed hard. "Q-quit? Quit what?"

He caressed Clara down her back as she wrapped her arms around his waist. He drew in a small sigh, not wanting to explain any more.

"Your _job_?"

He nodded softly. "She needs to go home." He pointed out. "I have to get her to bed."  
>And with that, he took hold of her at her wrist, taking her to his car. He didn't care what people thought of him or both of them. He was doing what he thought was the better option for them.<p>

"You feeling tired?" He helped her into the back of the car, not entirely sure she could go through the whole ride awake.

She nodded drowsily.

"Close your eyes then." Chris twisted the key into the ignition. "Don't let me stop you."

"What if I fall asleep?"

He smiled softly. "Don't worry about that. Just close your eyes, sweetheart…relax." He placed a hand against her forehead, allowing his thumb to graze the contour at her eyebrow.

"I liked the way you handled that back there." Her voice came muffled from her curled up position on the back seats.

He smoothly emerged from the school gates. "I just…wanted to tell her and everyone else the way I felt."

"I think what she did was very unfair." Clara noted drowsily. "How she could put you on the spot like that and ask you to marry her…she must've planned it all out."

"Well, she isn't the sort of person to make it up as she goes along, I'll give her that." He admitted. "But a marriage with her just wouldn't work. If I didn't have you, then maybe. But…life changes, doesn't it?"

"I'm sorry." She stated stonily.

"What? Why are you sorry?" He peered into the back to see her eyes fix onto his in the dark. "You didn't destroy things between us."

"But if I hadn't have turned up, you would still be with her."

"No," Chris reached out and let her take hold of his wrist, "don't say things like that. I would rather you turn up than not."

"Why did you quit your job then?"

He felt warm inside as she stroked him at the contour of his wrist. "Really and honestly, it was 'cause of what she did. But everyone now knows just what the two of us did."

"So what now?"

"Well, right now I'm going to get you home and straight to bed."

"Not that," Clara smirked tiredly, "I mean now that you've left?"

"Oh." He didn't think that much about what his plans were after he said he wasn't coming back. But then again, he didn't think that much about leaving in the first place! "I don't actually know."

"Guess you weren't thinking of leaving that place any time soon?"

"No, and especially not in that way." He drew in a small sigh, as the lights changed for him to go, prompting him to remove his wrist from her grip. "Don't worry, I haven't left us poor."

"Nice going," Tom stated to Karen sharply, "you've made our own deputy head quit his job and humiliated him in the process. Now he won't even come back."

"I did _not_ humiliate him," she noted icily, "I wanted to tell him how I felt."

"Well, he's made it blatantly clear how he feels towards _you_." He tossed the box of matches to one side.

"He chose his own daughter over me, how could he?"

"Don't you understand _anything_ about being a family?" He pointed out incredulously. "Chris did not choose her over you, it was simply a matter of _priority_. Her needs were greater than those of yours. She was _always _going to come first, Karen, didn't you see the way she was latching onto him?"

She drew in a shaky sigh.

"I'm sorry if things for you haven't gone the way you wanted them to, but he's done nothing wrong. I don't deny that he felt something for you, because he obviously did, but…why say that in front of everyone else? And why put him on the spot like that? That wasn't fair."

"I just wanted him to always be with me…"

"But that can't happen now, can it?" Tom softly told her. "Maybe it was never going to happen."

"Clara…" Chris gently stroked her long hair back. "You feel awake enough to walk?"

"No." She dreamily mumbled. She liked it when he carried her because she could feel him pressing her up against his warm, soft body. Plus she could also hear his heart if she nestled her head against his chest in the right place, and that was a reassuring sound to hear.

"I don't know," he playfully pointed out as he scooped her into his arms, "getting me to give you lifts here there and everywhere."

She giggled from his little quip, as he skilfully managed to lock the car and carry her up to the flat at the same time.

He laid her down on her bed, sweeping her hair back away from her face. "You going to sleep a bit better tonight now?"

She nodded slowly. "I think so." She reached out and cupped his face softly.

"Don't ever think you destroyed anything." He insisted. "If anything, you did the complete opposite of that. You made us become a family."

She felt her breath get taken away when he did the same as her. He was so gentle with her, and she relaxed under his touch.

"And I love you." He planted a kiss on her forehead.

"I love you too."

"I know you do." Chris made to switch her light off and leave her to sleep in her own time. "Go to sleep now, ok? Sweet dreams, my love."

_A/N – Wow this is a change for me to write at the end! Man I thought this fic would never end ha ha! Got another one on the way, so watch this space…!_

_Thanks for reading!_

_xXx_


End file.
